When it comes to decorating the home for the holidays, former Martha Stewart Living employee, Jennifer Johnson-Porter maintains that simple is always best.

For the mother-of-two, Christmas tree preparations start at her house as soon as Thanksgiving is done and the fall linens, plates and turkey decorations have been put away. Although she used to be more focused on making sure all the lights and ornaments were picture perfect in time for her first holiday guests, these days she said it’s more important to her that her children are able to get in on the action and have fun making memories together.

Mrs. Johnson-Porter recently met with The Royal Gazette and shared some of her easy and inexpensive tips for how to get a home into a festive mood for the holidays. And believe it or not, it doesn’t require spending heaps of extra cash — many items can be easily found at home or purchased on the cheap. Read on to find out how ...

1. Music is a big help when it comes to getting Mrs Johnson-Porter in the Christmas spirit. She said the first thing she does before tackling any decorating is to pull out tunes from artists like Johnny Mathis, Ray Conniff and Mahalia Jackson to help her family tap into the spiritual part of the holidays.

2. Next, she sorts through the box of ornaments from past years and decides what theme or colour scheme she wants to run with this year. She said it’s best to start by using what you already have and then purchasing a few odd pieces if necessary. Popular choices for the tree are multi-coloured, red and gold or plain silver ornaments; or why not try a woodland theme with cedar ornaments, pine cones and tartan ribbon? Mrs Johnson-Porter uses small cedar car fresheners as ornaments and present toppers, which can be found at Flying Colours, three for $9.95.

3. Her preference is to always go with a real Christmas tree, rather than an artificial one. Not only does a real tree make the home smell nice for the holidays, but some of the extra trimmings can be used to decorate the rest of the house. You can sprinkle the tree trimmings in the centre of the dinner table, almost like a runner, or use them to make a simple wreath.

4. When it comes to lighting the tree, Mrs Johnson-Porter recommends wrapping the tree lights in tight loops, starting from the top and working down towards the stump (where the lights can also be easily plugged in).

You might use more lights than you originally thought, but this technique adds a lot of depth and a tiered look to the tree.

5. Ribbon is a really great tool for holiday decorating, considering that most people have some laying around the house or can be purchased inexpensively. You can use the ribbon to finish decorating the tree and give it a polished look.

6. Mrs Johnson-Porter gets the children in on the action, by making some air popped popcorn and letting the little ones help to create a popcorn chain.

She said: “It’s a fun, inexpensive child centred activity and you get a nice long thread of popcorn afterwards that you can drape around the tree while the music is playing and the lights are on. It doesn’t last very long, but you can entertain them for a good 15 minutes with it.”

7. Mrs Johnson-Porter isn’t against using tinsel, but encourages people to spread it out finely so it doesn’t look clumpy.

8. When it comes to Christmas presents, Mrs Johnson-Porter skips the expensive wrapping paper and uses brown craft paper (available at any stationery store) and coloured ribbons in festive colours like red, green or gold. She then adds a little topper, like the cedar ornaments or extra sprigs from the Christmas tree to finish off the look. The other great thing about using craft paper is that instead of just throwing it out, you can save it for your next art project around the house.

9. To decorate a holiday table, you can take some pine cones or left over ornaments in the colours of your choice and put them in one large or three small glass bowls in the centre of your dinner table. You can also use unscented candles to add a special glow to the dinner table (and so that the food smells still take centre stage) and sprinkle some gold flex of confetti for an added pop.

10. You don’t necessarily need fancy white table linens if you are having guests over for the holidays. One inexpensive tip, that will also save you from a massive clean up afterwards, is to line the table with white craft paper and then run a thinner piece of red or green paper in the middle as a runner. Use white plates and clear glasses to complete the polished look.

11. Or, if you want to decorate outside the house, why not make a wreath using some of those spare ornaments? Just spread adhesive onto the outside of each bulb, then wrap them in yarn and glue them together with super glue to make a special holiday decoration. Another great tip is to use spare yarn to finish wrapping presents instead of ribbon.

12. Instead of using an angel to top your Christmas tree, you can create a unique tree topper using wired ribbon.

Another great option that Mrs Johnson-Porter found is a beautiful hand crafted felt star, purchased from the Irish Linen Shop for around $80.