As you are planning your next get together, whether it’s a big holiday event or an intimate dinner for a couple of friends, don’t discount the effectiveness of appropriate décor. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to break the bank to decorate your party space. Think outside of the box and use the resources that are delivered to your door as brainstorming ideas for clever and inexpensive decorating ideas. The following mail order catalogs can offer a wealth of great products that won’t break your entertaining budget.
Harriet Carter Mail Order Ideas
Money Tree Decoration: Harriet Carter offers this product for about $7, and it is a 16” metal tree with 12 bendable branches. By attaching crisp paper currency to the tips of the branches, you create a charming representation that money can actually “grow” on trees! This decoration looks great as a table centerpiece and can be used for the following types of events:
- Charity Dinner: use one Money Tree per table, with a set amount of cash. Raffle off the Money Trees following the dinner, benefiting both the recipient and the charity.
- Age-Specific Birthday: You can create a Money Tree that either includes bills specific to the birthday person’s age (five-year-old, ten-year-old, twenty-year old, etc.) or includes bills that total the person’s age.
- Any Event with Thematic Colors: You could also use the Money Tree to create a centerpiece that does not include actual currency. Consider using it for a Halloween centerpiece, by substituting orange and black origami or scrapbooking paper for the bills.
Deviled Egg Serving Tray: Harriet Carter offers this product for about $8: a snap lock travel and serving piece that create a beautiful display of deviled eggs on your buffet set up. But consider using this item as a decorating piece too. How about filling the depressions with colored eggs for an Easter event, specific colored M&Ms for Halloween or Christmas, or gold coin chocolates for St. Patrick’s Day?
Votive Candle Carver: Harriet Carter offers this product for about $7: a tool to carve out round discs from apples, pumpkins or any other fruit. Once the disc is removed, you can fill the hole with a tealight or votive candle. Imagine the possibilities for creating tablescapes effortlessly with this clever tool! A Thanksgiving display can be created with minimal effort and maximum impact by using the votive carver on mini pumpkins, filling the resulting holes with votives in a spice fragrance and scattering the pumpkins, along with fresh cranberries, burnished foliage and pinecones along the midline of a caramel colored table.
