The decorative arts
Crafty schemes for your holiday party.

by Jennifer Gilomen

IT'S THAT EXTRAFESTIVE time of year, and you have a party to throw. In houses and apartments all across the city, hosts are frantically cruising MarthaStewart.com for inspiration, searching (in vain) for tasteful, inexpensive, lightning-fast ways to transform their living rooms. Meanwhile the malls are swarming with stressed-out, irate shoppers playing bumper carts for Furbies and fighting over the last piece of tinsel. It's tempting to call off the whole season – no gifts, no decorative accents, and most definitely no holiday parties.

But it doesn't have to be this way. There are abundant avenues for creating warmth and festivity in your home without buying into the mayhem. Below are a few ideas to kick-start your own holiday decorating scheme without bringing on shell shock or cracking your piggy bank.

Theme 1: Reinventing tradition

My family reached a nadir of decorating laziness somewhere around 1985, when we replaced the traditional yet cumbersome Christmas tree with a cardboard "Christmas box." My sisters and I attempted to conceal the Sony logos with green Magic Marker, but it was just plain wrong. I'm all for anomalies of custom, but something was missing.

And yet for me, neither of the standard Christmas-tree options appeals: plastic plants are a letdown, and I'm filled with dread rather than yule when I see the postholiday carnage of dying pines lining the streets for months after the new year begins. (Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, Americans become particularly prodigal, creating five million extra tons of trash, 70 percent of which is destined for landfills.)

Define 'tree'

Here's a solution: avoid both the slain pine and its snap-together cousin by constructing a tree-esque formation out of presents for friends and family or, if you're sublimating your gift-giving urge this year, items for toy/food/clothing drives.

Directions Collect recycled paper in one color family or scheme, such as butcher paper, comics, or magazine pages. Use the biggest gifts for a foundation, stagger them to simulate fronds, and work your way up. If you're short on presents, wrap up empty boxes and use poster putty to tuck in the edges so you can reuse all the materials. Use cloth, ornaments, ribbon, or candy to adorn the tree as you please. And if you're anxious about earthquakes or inquisitive gift-shakers, secure your "giving tree" by sticking poster putty between the tiers as well.

Plant life

Another option for bringing green into your home without dooming it to curbside banishment is to deviate from the traditional pine. Easy to grow and never more appropriate, peace lilies are hearty, year-round plants that don't require much light or water and are said to have excellent air-cleansing abilities. If you're looking for something of greater stature, consider an indoor tree you can decorate to your heart's content and then relish year-round.

If you do opt for the live pine, get a potted one destined for replanting. Call Friends of the Urban Forest (415-561-6890, ext. 109) to see if they can use your discarded tree that week (note: space is limited). Or set your tree free in a timely fashion: on your regular recycling day Jan. 5 through 9, Sunset Scavenger will collect it from the curb and see that it gets used for mulch – one of the best ways to fertilize soil. For more information go to www.sunsetscavenger.com/sf_news_101203.pdf.

Bittersweet wreath

A wreath with an icy holiday look can also be displayed year-round with small seasonal flourishes (daisies in spring, dry leaves in fall). Gather dead vines and bind them with wire or twine. If vines are scarce, soak twigs in water to make them pliable, then dry them out in a ring formation. I coated the front of my wreath with silver metallic enamel and added a few fresh roses to create an elegant heavy metal holiday look. Later I'll gather and hang the roses in the center of the wreath to maintain their graceful austerity as they dry.

Theme 2: Edible season

After seeing Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for the first time, I sat cross-legged in a little pink nightgown, dreaming about a world in which everything I saw became a Tootsie-Roll. That was two years ago, but I'll never forget those visions of edible decor – definitely the way to go if the party's at your pad this year. Besides all the following, try coating a mantle with cotton candy snow or making peanut-butter-ball snowmen (peanut-butter-cup hats, M&M buttons, and chocolate-covered-pretzel arms).

Rock candy icicles

Rock candy has three ingredients: sugar, water, and patience. My roommate said, "I can't believe anyone would wait so long for candy." The suckers take a week to crystallize, so commence this sweet cycle early if you're planning to dangle rock-candy icicles for nibbling partygoers.

You'll need

1 jar

1 pencil or Popsicle stick

1 paper clip

String

1 cup water

3 cups sugar

Directions Tie one end of a piece of string around the pencil or Popsicle stick and weight the other end with the paper clip so it hangs to the bottom of the jar. Moisten the string and roll some sugar onto it to jump-start crystallization. Boil the water, then slowly dissolve as much of the remaining sugar as possible into it (the thicker the better). Pour the solution into the jar and lay the pencil or Popsicle stick across the top. Start singing the Jeopardy! theme song – crystals will begin to form in a few hours, but you won't have solid rock candy for another 7 to 10 days. In the meantime pour a little liquid off the top to use as coffee or tea sweetener. When it's ready, hang the rock candy with string or fishing line and watch your guests act like baby birds.

The Spinning Jenny

More than one guest will make a "wicky-wicky" joke before grabbing a bonbon from this spinning LP serving tray.

You'll need (from bottom to top)

2 LP records no longer in rotation

1 screw and 1 matching nut, less than ¼ inch in diameter

1 film canister or a few scratched/discarded CDs (I used a Super 8 film canister)

An ornament or other decorative element

Directions Sandwich the film canister or CDs between two LPs, then fasten the screw with the nut through the stack. Drill a hole in the bottom of the ornament and screw it onto the top. Cover your new serving platter with delicious treats.

Chocoholic's hot chocolate

A steaming cup of hot chocolate hits the spot on a cold winter night. But how much better would it be if the cup was (partially) made of chocolate, too? Some might label this pure piggishness; those benighted souls simply fail to grasp the crucial difference between gluttony and ingenuity.

You'll need

6 oz. chocolate

Small teacups, saucers, and spoons

Hot chocolate (your own recipe)

Directions Melt chocolate squares in a double boiler, then delicately dip the tops of the teacups and spoons in the melted chocolate. Drizzle the remainder over saucers. Refrigerate and pull out later for a drool-inspiring party display until hot chocolate is served. All Jennifer Gilomen wants for mayor is M-A-T-T. Contact her at www.forwardfilms.org.

TK BOX THIS SOMEWHERE IN THE VICINITY OF REINVENTING TRADITION:

Furniture cover

An inexpensive way to integrate your holiday designs is to dress furniture. Just about any cloth that matches your decorative color scheme will do. For example, a thrift store tablecloth can be tucked and pinned around an armchair to make a great spot for a winter catnap. For extra credit, a set of matching place mats can be sewn together (leaving a four-inch hole) to make temporary armrest covers for an armchair. Pull apart cotton stuffing to create "faux snow" decorations elsewhere, and when you've sung "Auld Lang Syne," it can be used to stuff the armrest doilies for pillows you can use year-round.

TK PLEASE BOX THIS NEAR THE HOT CHOCOLATE BLURB

Decorative hot plates

Bathroom tiles aren't edible, but they're cheap and make good hot plates, because they're easy to decorate, easy to clean, and don't conduct heat. Try decorating the front side with some metallic enamel paint and use craft glue to adhere smaller tiles (chips of larger tiles would also work) to the back to create a raised hot plate platform. Display them in a neat stack on a flat surface and grab them when you're serving something steamy.