- Make or buy some snacks or treats to enjoy together at completion of your decorating time.

Here are some favorite quick and dirty decorating areas and tips:

1. The front door- Have a welcome sign that is theme oriented and you can easily change by season or by holiday. You can either hang up a completely new themed sign, or there are some that come with interchangeable pieces you swap in and out representing different holidays or themes.

2. The dining room table or a table that is centrally located but not used that often- Change table runner or tablecloth to a holiday themed one. Then showcase your holiday decorations by arranging a combination of your kid's holiday creations and your own figurines or other holiday decor on table.

3. The mantel or entertainment center- Add a string of lights and if you wish, you can also vary string of lights by color best suited for coming holiday theme. Wall hangings can be changed around this area temporarily as well. Holiday accessories, flags, figurines, etc. are easy to rotate in and to view on or around this area of your home.

4. Special areas by kid's choice- Smaller children can help by adding little decorations to windows and glass doors. They enjoy taping up their creations or they can easily put up static cling decorations. Other areas small children enjoy decorating include outdoors, dog house and their own rooms. Allow them to handle this aspect of decorating while you take pleasure in their big smiles and hugs!

Finally, make your decorating time even more enjoyable by having holiday background music or other favorite tunes playing in background. Then, when you're done decorating, finish up with a big family hug and munching on tasty snack treats together!

© 2003 Elizabeth Hekimian-Williams, Giftsprings

The next step to take in order to reduce amount of “junk mail” you receive at home is to contact Direct Marketing Association. Contact them by letter and give them your full name, your complete home address, your telephone number and your signature. Inform them that you want to register for their “opt-out” Preference program.

They can be contacted at:

Direct Marketing Association Mail Preference Service P.O. Box 643 Carmel, NY 10512

This registration will stop mailings from many national companies for a period of five years. However, it will not stop mailings if company is not registered with Direct Marketing Association.

It will take about 90 days to honor your request if you contact them by mail. The DMA circulates their “opt-out” list quarterly to their members, so you may not see a significant change for three to six months.

If you want a faster way to “opt-out” of their list, then consider going online to register for this service. You will need a credit card to pay $5.00 charge to register online. Contact DMA online at www.dmaconsumers.org. There is no charge to register by mail however.

By registering with these two services now you should see a dramatic decrease in amount of telemarketing calls and mail that you receive in near future.