How to decorate on a budget for the holidays

Here's a very simple way to make an elegant holiday arrangement with vases and ornaments - perfect for holiday decorating on a budget.

• All you need are a few clear glass vases, cylinders, or pitchers you might have lying around the house, and a group of solid-colored round ornaments.
• Try to find containers that are various sizes and shapes.
• Choose a few different colors of ornaments, but make sure you have enough of each color to fill up a container.
• Fill each glass container to the top with your ornaments. Make sure to isolate each color in each container.
• To get the most of your "new" holiday decorations, group the various containers together in an entryway or buffet table for a streamlined and modern holiday look.

LISA: Hi I'm Lisa Birnbach for howdini.com. Sometimes the most beautiful tabletops are the simplest idea, and especially now with the recession on it's nice to reuse what you have in a new way that's elegant. Designer Libby Langdon is here to show us how to do a beautiful holiday arrangement with vases and ornaments. So?

LIBBY: Yes. Very, very simple and the idea is take some things that you've already got in your house: simple glass vases, cylinders, things you just have laying around. You could use a pitcher-

LISA: Uh-huh.

LIBBY: Anything really simple, and ornaments. Keep some of your solid ornaments, don't put them on the tree, and put them in these glass cylinders.

LISA: And you can leave them all around your house.

LIBBY: Absolutely, but what I love is when you really isolate you know all those same colors in one cylinder.

LISA: It's very elegant.

LIBBY: It is. And it's great in an entryway, super on a buffet table, really simple to do, and sort of a new use of ornaments that you already have.

LISA: No I like it. It's actually more modern and less kind of kitschy.

LIBBY: And sometimes with all of our décor we think, oh we did this last year we've got to do it the same way this year.

LISA: Right.

LIBBY: But you don't. I think people should look at it and see if there's a new twist you can put on it.

LISA: Oh I really like this.

LIBBY: But the varying sizes makes it interesting, too. And when you just put them together as a group it really just looks visually interesting.

LISA: So your recommendation is: find a new use, recycle your ornaments, recycle your vases, and group them together for some drama.  

LIBBY: Very simple. Very, very easy to do.

LISA: Thank you happy holidays to you.

LIBBY: Happy holidays to you.

LISA: Thank you. For howdini.com I'm Lisa Birnbach.