Decorating for the holidays can warm your soul, bring joy to your heart, and tears to your eyes – hopefully the good kind.  Preparing your home for the season should be enjoyable, not stressful. Once you redesign your kitchen, you will want to show off your home to visitors. Inexpensive and easy ways to decorate your kitchen for the holidays will help you do both: create a cheerful home while keeping the stress of the season at bay.

While most people focus on their living rooms while holiday decorating, your kitchen will be the room in your home that will sparkle.

Easy Ways to Decorate your Kitchen for the Holidays

• Take advantage of foods and spices of the season

Pomegranate, pumpkin, apple, cinnamon. There must be a reason why all these traditional holiday foods and spices have beautiful holiday colors, a sensational scent, or both. One easy way to decorate your kitchen for the holidays, therefore, can start at the grocery store as opposed to the home store.

Find that decorative jar or vase in the back of your cupboard and fill it with a few of these holiday staples, and use your creativity to decorate with some items from the craft store or your children’s school supplies. It’s not only easy and fun, but an opportunity for quality time with your family. Your children won’t mind sharing their supplies if they can help!

• Kitchen table centerpiece

If you think outside the box, easy ways to decorate your kitchen for the holidays don’t even have to cost an extra penny! You know those leftover ornaments that are still attractive but didn’t really fit the tone of the tree this year? And that gold, silver, red, or green serving tray that you never use? Got those? OK, now, did any needles fall off your natural tree or any branches off your artificial one? Well, put them all together on that serving tray and just like that, you have a centerpiece.

• Candy cane creativity

Candy canes are great, aren’t they? Not only are they fun to eat, but they’re also a sign of the season that you can use to decorate everything from your tree to your countertops. Put a few on your kitchen window sill and on the table around the centerpiece you create, and you’ve added a sweet touch to your holiday decor. But don’t stop there. You can use candy canes of all different sizes and flavors along with other holiday-themed materials throughout your kitchen. Check out these ideas on Pinterest.

• Exciting table settings

The possibilities are endless when it comes to your kitchen island or breakfast nook. Use your holiday-themed kitchenware to create elegant, timeless, fun, or trendy tablescapes. See the Food Network’s suggestions for holiday table settings and centerpieces.

The only thing you will have to decide is the tone you want to present throughout your home for the holiday season – be it fun and childlike, trendy, or classic.

So Many More Ideas …

With so many easy ways to decorate your kitchen for the holidays, you’ll want the spirit to last all year. And that’s OK. After the holidays end and the new year begins, Valentine’s Day will be just around the corner. Oh, and look at that! You have a lot of “red” left over, so start planning now.