An eco-friendly winter wonderland holiday party
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I am excited to share with you the decorations from our holiday party. You’ll see that you don’t have to go shopping and spend a ton of money, I used things that I already had around the house. Just had to look around my surroundings and think outside the box and get creative in reusing and re-purposing them. End result was very satisfying. Almost every piece of decoration was a conversation starter.
The theme for the party was winter wonderland and the colors I picked were white, silver, purple and touches of red and green.
A warm entry way
I have often reused my kid’s baby milk storage bottles and baby food jars in many ways. This time I lined up the bottles using them as vases filling white rice to keep the single purple flowers in place. Tip: You can color the rice with food color if you desire.
And used the baby food jars as tea light holders. I filled them with light green glass gems that I had and topped with green tea lights. The underlying embroidered runner sparkled.
Old Christmas ornaments were used as wall hangings. I hung them along the wall in varying lengths using purple ribbon. Tip: You can use any ornaments you have – they don’t have to all match! Use coordinating colors from your chosen color palette for the ribbons and that will bring it all together.
Simple and yummy appetizer table
I like using plain white serving ware. I feel that they look clean and modern, and helps in highlighting the food.
For some color and sparkle, I filled three vases with water and added a few drops of purple food color. I lit green candles on top of each.
To bring in the christmas theme, I setup the cheese, tomatoes and basil in the shape of a christmas tree. The rest were all yummy finger food appetizers and munchies.
Plastic water bottles re-purposed as wall hangings
I had several empty plastic water bottles from work which I wanted to do something with other than simply toss in the recycle bin. I came up with these wall hangings that were made by cutting up each bottle and painting them in purple and silver individually. I then tied the bottles together in bunches. It took a while to complete this project, but I was very happy with the end result.
Plastic water bottles reused to make snow flakes
While I was working on the plastic water bottle wall hangings, I attempted to cut empty plastic water bottles in the shape of snow flakes and painted them silver. They were hung on the walls in the family and dining rooms.
Cotton ball snow fall
To create a snow fall effect, I tied several cotton balls using white cotton thread. These strings were hung from the dining room chandelier, along the walls with my plastic water bottle snow flakes, and along the windows between string lights. It created a beautiful snowy look.
Decorating with tree branches – bring nature indoors
My lovely husband found this large branch on the curbside one morning and picked it up for me. After cleaning it up a bit, lightly painted it in white and silver and placed it in a white planter on the dinner buffet table. The bare shimmering branch brought a beautiful winter look.
Curtain drapes and blankets used as table cover
Layering together a pair of purple cotton window drapes that I had bought a long time ago and white fleece blankets that I had made table covers for my dinner buffet tables that went well with my party theme and color palette. Tip: Any clean sheet of fabric that you already have works well for re-purposing as table cover.
Buffet table centerpiece reusing and recycling items you already have
All it took was to layer several items I had around the house to create a table centerpiece for my winter wonderland party buffet.
- Beautiful white packing paper over the buffet table to bring some snow effect.
- A few pine cones that the kids had picked up from a nearby park.
- Some decorative items (silver flowers, red berries) under the inverted martini and small wine glasses and a white tea light over the top.
- A couple of tall and thin clear glasses filled with water and white floating candles in them.
- A few mini christmas trees (white and green) in between.
These were items found around my house. But really anything you have can be used. The whole thing was extremely easy to setup and the effect was awesome!
Jewelry hanger tree centerpiece
I guess I love trees in general! This jewelry hanger is great to place as a table centerpiece or in any small area. I decorated it by simply hanging crystals and some red berries.
Old CD tower rack re-purposed for holding candles
It was perfect to place in the corner of an L-shaped hallway to add some light. I simply placed several LED lights in each shelf of the tower and on the top placed a vase with an LED pillar candle inside and a purple flower ball on the top. It glowed beautifully.
Party favors can also act as decoration
Colorful sugar moulds as party favors
I wanted to give my guests a little memento to take home. So, I made these sugar moulds in different colors. They can be used wherever sugar is used.
My habit of saving jars came handy here 🙂 I reused some empty clear glass jars to pack the sugar moulds.
And for kids I simply stuck some kisses chocolates on balls of foil.
Placing all the favors along with some Christmas themed knick-knacks and some LED snow flakes on shelves acted as decoration until the end of the party.
Gift wrapping using fabric
There are several sustainable options for wrapping gifts. We don’t have to tear up paper!
What I used here are pillow cases, shawls and scarfs. Silk ribbons (that I had saved over time) were used to tie the gifts, they are fun to open.
These gifts were for the family only. So, all the wrapping fabrics went back to their original purpose after the gifts were opened.Tip: If the gifts are for others, the wrappings could be part of the gift. Example – Kitchen or hand towels, pillow cases for kids, blankets, table cloth, table runner, scarfs, shawls etc.
