Home Décor Ideas:

• Make a candy cane vase using an empty coffee can. Glue candy canes, curved side up, around the entire can. Fill this with red flowers for a spirited holiday table decoration.

• Sew Christmas throw pillow covers that can be placed over your year-around sofa pillows. Just measure the sides of the pillow, then make a simple cover the same dimensions, adding a zipper on one side for easy removal to wash or change.

• Group a collection of nutcrackers, teddy bears, or favorite ornaments together for a simple centerpiece.

• Put some bare twigs in a vase and insert gumdrops or cranberries on the ends of the branches for an unusual tree centerpiece.

• A nice natural centerpiece can be made by lining a wooden bowl with colorful leafy greens. Fill with a selection of winter fruit.

• A really inexpensive but elegant centerpiece, wrap up some empty boxes with holiday wrap and pile them in the center of your table. Also they look great on a wall grouping of photos. Just wrap one of the framed pictures like a gift and hang it back up.
  
• Bread dough makes a beautiful wreath. Braid a long strand of your favorite bread dough and attach both ends. Bake as if you were going to eat it then add a ribbon at the top for an unusual wreath. Brushing the dough with an egg white wash before baking will result in a wreath that has a nice sheen to it.

• Spray pine cones and whole walnuts with gold or silver spray paint and place in special bowls, trays, baskets, etc. The shinier the paint, the better.

• Go beyond the traditional Christmas tree garlands of popcorn and cranberries and try stringing pasta or cinnamon sticks instead. You can also dry orange and apple slices and string them for a country holiday garland. Another garland to try is to sew small fabric disks called 'yo-yos' together.

• Make small bowls of potpourri and place them around the house. Mix together some cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and allspice, citrus peel and pine cones. A favorite potpourri is in a basket with miniature white lights buried among it. When plugged in, the lights warm the potpourri just enough to release the scent.

• Cut and sand a nice pine board as long as you want it, stain or paint it, attach shaker pegs, then mount on wall to hang any number of Christmas stockings.
  

Pine cone ideas:
1) Glue the smallest glass balls between the 'petals' of big pine cones. Use with greenery garlands, or stand 3 of them together on a tray lined with evergreen foliage.
2) If you're blessed with access to large pinecones, pick one that can stand firmly (or scrape the bottom of it until it stands on its own). Hollow out a little 'cave' at the front bottom and glue into place a tiny plastic Nativity scene or tiny tree and deer or other scene. Paint the tips of the petals with white paint or texturized snow paint.
3) Scatter several smaller cones on a plate or tray along with some greenery, then place ceramic animals or Nativity figures among them.
4) For a hanging pinecone display, attach a piece of thin wire to the fat end of the cone for the hanger, then on top of this, hot glue some greenery, bird in nest, and a bow, taking care to leave the hanger free. This would make a nice hostess gift for those many Christmas parties.
5) Smaller pinecones look great en masse in a wooden bucket, basket, tub, wheelbarrow-- just about any container. A large basket full of pinecones of any size with a red bow on the handle would look good just outside the front door of the house.
6) Wax-dip scented pinecones: Gather some paraffin wax, crayons or candle coloring, and candle scent, essential oil, or perfume. Melt the wax in a coffee can placed inside a pot of water, then add the color, then the oil. The trick is not to get the wax real hot. To speed up the cooling you can dip them in wax then in water. They are dipped 5-6 times, rotating each time, top and bottom so that you get an even coat. After the final dip, put them through cold water so that they have a sheen. These look really nice nestled in a basket with excelsior.

Snow Scene: In a big, spherical bowl I put lots of fake snow until it was about 1/2 full. Carefully buried a battery pack with 10 white mini Christmas lights (the kind from the $1 store). Then put in a white glazed polar bear (also from a dollar store) and a few white gravel stones, plus a small snow-covered tree to scale. The switch for the lights has to be located close to the surface of the snow to carefully turn it on. The batteries last through two parties-worth White aquarium gravel might be good.

Glass Ball Place cards: Decorate clear or glass balls with dimensional paints, jewels, sequins, etc, and name of guest for take-home decoration.

For a Music/Bird Centerpiece: Gather 1 small Christmas bird, small amount of nesting material (either collected moss or buy Spanish moss), small holly pick, small spruce cones or pine cones, 1 yard of 1/4" - 1/2" red ribbon, 4 empty paper towel rolls, 4 copies of Christmas Carol music sheets, hot glue. Now, glue sheet music to outside of each paper towel roll. Stuff the rolls with crumpled up newspaper and glue some moss at opened ends of rolls. Glue two rolls together side by side (use hot glue gun) Glue other two rolls on top of the first two, staggering them slightly so the unit is free standing and stable, or use 3 or 5 rolls. Glue length of ribbon around the four rolls in center, then glue nesting material in the center on top of rolls. Glue bird in place. Add holly, cones, berries or other small items for filler around the nest. Make a nice bow and glue to front of the nest.

Corn Kissing Ball: Collect a BUNCH of acorns with their caps. Hot glue sheet moss over a 3" styrafoam ball. Hold an acorn by the nut end. Cover the stem with hot glue and quickly press it onto the ball. Keep going till the whole ball is covered. Add a piece of real or artificial mistletoe at the bottom. To hang, make a loop with ribbon, and poke the ends of the ribbon into the styrofoam ball (where there are no acorns), opposite the mistletoe. Glue into place. Try this with walnuts, hazelnuts, or pistachios too.

Christmas Lights Potpourri Jar: Get a 1/2 gal. canning jar, a cotton doily, a 20-light string of miniature Christmas lights, bag of potpourri, and ribbon. Put the string of lights down in the jar, leaving the cord sticking out the top. Then you pour in the potpourri around the lights. Place the doily on top and tie with the ribbon. Plug in and enjoy! Note: light strings with fewer lights get more electricity per light than strings with more lights. If you don't want to worry about fire hazards, use strings with more lights since they don't heat up as much. If you can easily hold a lit bulb, you're probably okay. Test carefully before trusting this decor idea in your home.

Willow Star: Cut willow branches all one length and tie in the shape of a star with raffia or ribbon, embellish with greenery or flowers.

White Light Garland:

Cookie-Cutter Garland: Take a screwdriver and carefully poke holes into the sides of cookie cutters. String them onto twine, use color beads for decoration and as spacers between cookie-cutters. Tie ends of twine to keep beads and cookie cutters to stay put.

Santa's Favorite Cookies Wreath: Wrap torn strips of red, green, and white plaid fabric around a grapevine wreath. Glue cookie cutters on the front, put matching bow on the bottom. Using special paper, write or print out a favorite cookie recipe, laminate it if desired, then glue it to the back. Or, make an attractive wreath for the kitchen or dining room that displays your Christmas menu, recipe cards, child's tea set, etc.

Source: http://www.rollanet.org/~anderson/cdecorating.html