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The holidays always bring to mind family, fun, festive decorations and food. We want our homes to look nice, but we don't want to spend a small fortune on things we only use once a year. With a little creativity, and bargain shopping, you can have a nice setting for your family celebration.

Fall place mats - An old stand-by; use the leaves from your own yard. Gather some that have a nice shape and color, clean them and press them flat under heavy books. Instead of the waxed paper that we used in grade school, get a roll of clear contact paper. Lay one of your placemats on the paper for a pattern, cutting it out twice as wide, so it can be folded over to
seal in the leaves. Crease the contact paper in the middle, open it, and pull only half the paper backing away, arrange the leaves anyway you like (the kids would love to help). If you want more color, place a piece of construction paper under the leaves. After you have the leaves in place, pull back a little of the paper at a time, smoothing the top piece of contact paper as you go, removing air bubbles and sealing around the leaves. For an extra touch, get some ribbon and glue some around the edges, like a frame.

Wooden decorations - Most craft stores have simple wood cutouts of all sorts of holiday items. Even if you don't consider yourself an artist, there are simple paint techniques, using sponges, rubber stamps or stencils, which will produce a nice look with very little work. The store staff can probably even suggest some easy projects. Make it a family project; the
kids will enjoy it as well. You may be surprised at how well they will do.

Dishes - if you don't care about using the good china, there are always pretty paper plates and napkins that can add a touch of color to the meal. Many of them are fairly sturdy and can hold up to the amounts of food we tend to eat over the holidays. The best part? No dishes to wash, except some utensils and the pots and pans, so you have more time to enjoy relaxing after dinner.

Other decorations - Check your local party supply store, many times there are discount ones around. They may have nice wall decorations you can buy, and they sometimes have things you can rent as well. They may have garlands of fake leaves, or center pieces.

Wreaths - Making a fall wreath is fairly easy. Get some floral foam from the local craft store (they usually have precut pieces ready to be used for wreaths). Look through their silk flowers and leaves. Gather some in fall colors (quite often you can get a bargain on these, if you shop around a bit). You don't have to be an expert in floral arranging to get a nice look. Follow a simple pattern, placing the largest flower every so many inches around (depending on the sizes), then move to the next smaller item, once you are down to the "filler" pieces, like leaves or greenery, just fill in the empty places. Put a bow at the bottom, and you're done.