Beginning with just a few items, you can get ideas from those to branch out into a great holiday decorating theme that grows a little each year, with a few more lights and ornaments added to what you’ve already got. Some great ideas for decorating themes for Christmas  are just the characters that you and your kids love. Outdoor decorationg themes for Christmas can include:.

Disney Characters
Snowflakes
Santa Claus or Father Christmas
Old Trains
Rudolph and the Reindeer
Country or Rustic Cottage Decorating

There are so many wonderful things you can add to your outdoor Christmas display these days that knowing where to stop is where it gets tricky. Getting the best from your holiday lighting means using LED of course, but you have the option to add 3D sculptures that are lit, as well as lighting things that aren’t obvious such as a birdbath, a wreath, a single tree, or even a tall sculpture that you like with a spotlight.

A few ideas for outdoor Christmas Decorating Themes Might Be.

Snowflakes are always a great bet. Use them lit up in windows or in trees outside.

Forest themes are fast and easy to accomplish, using lighting, giant pinecones and red bows on fencing or rails around your house.

Food style themes such as the Gingerbread house and Gingerbread men and women are available for sale and bring a taste of fantasy to your home decorations outdoors.

Artificial sculptures of animals brings a woodsy theme to your house and the outdoor decorating is gorgeous when its used. that was one of our favorite themes. Its nicely done when you really do live in the country or backwoods area.

Even a single bow on each fencepost and one on the door is it’s own kind of theme. Make Christmas magic with holiday lighting and decorations that you’ve done from your heart.

Some of the best and brightest of the displays we’ve seen are LED lights in monochromatic lighting themes. All red, all white, all blue or all teal are among the hot outdoor lighting trends. A color scheme, including a single spotlight or two that is used as uplighting for a tree or another element is a great touch in outdoor lighting.
LED lighting is brighter, more reflective and just generally a LOT more attractive. Overstock.com, Amazon.com and several of the other hot shopping arenas are offering great deals on LED Christmas lights already to let you get into the new method of doing things. You’re going to love how it looks, love how it shines and you’re going to be mad about the savings on your electric bill.

You still get your holiday sparkle, but LED lighting is also doing something good for the environment. Use LED this Christmas and see if you dont’ agree that its the hottest thing going for sparkle and savings at Christmas.

A few good examples of Christmas gifts that cost under twenty dollars are available from extraordinary companies such as Royal Doulton, Collections Etc, Amazon.com, Book Closeouts.com, and others.
Electronics Sale

For your Information Here are some of the best we’ve found as we scoured the web for elegant and interesting low cost holiday gifts. Gifts under twenty dollars can include:

From Royal Doulton

Cup of the months, or close out bone china cups can be had from Royal Doulton China starting out at just about 7.00. One thing we’ve done with those is to offer a small sample parcel of some fine chocolate such as Godiva chocolates, place it in the cup, add a single pot package of some wonderful tea or coffee and a tin of gourmet cookies or a dozen home made ones. Placed into a basket that you can find at Amazon or another basket store, you’re going to have an elegant gift that costs under twenty dollars including the wrappings. Shop Now and use the promo code EARLY15 and you will get an extra 15% away from anything you buy from Royal Doulton.

From Think Geek.

For the geeks or Star Trek fans in your world, this years Think Geek featured gift is the interactive Tribble. Anyone who’s ever seen Star Trek knows what a Tribble is and wants one. These tiny little furries who coo and chortle are some of the cutest things we’ve seen on the market in years. Everyone wants one. Unless of course they are Klingon, in which case they have an aversion.

From Collections etc.

Nearly everything on this amazing website and store costs under 25 dollars. From furniture that is relatively well built (yes we ordered some) to holiday decorating ideas, to baking pans, kitchen goods, toys and blankets and curtains, as well as jewelry and other things you can find any type of gift that yo’ure looking for at Collections Etc.

From Amazon.com
Jewelry, toys, games, interactive story books, and just about anything else you could imagine can come from Amazon. If you live a bit away and are in the market to save on shipping, buy them an emailable gift card with a personal message. Amazon, as you might imagine, being secure and easy to order from is one of our favorite Christmas stores. The plethora of holiday gifts under 25 dollars that you can find there is simply too long to list, but few of their offerings include.

Chocolates
Special ornaments
Books
Toys
Sterling Silver Jewelry
Movies to Buy or download

If you know someone who has a Kindle, you can offer them magazines, newspapers and multiple other great gifts for readers, many of them under ten dollars.

This Christmas, offer a little more for a little less by shopping around at some of the remarkable stores that bring you great Christmas gifts for under 20 dollars.

Set a lovely holiday table just for your family, even if there is no one else coming in. Show them that they come first by taking out the good china, or putting some gorgeous centerpiece on the table, or offering a special dessert one evening during the holiday season, so that family knows that they are special… just as special as those other holiday guests.

Plan something special for the kids. Bake ahead and make some sugar cookies so that the baking and decorating aren’t all accomplished at the same time, and then have a decorating party for your kids and a few friends. Set out premixed frosting and sprinkles and a few dozen cookies. Let them decorate and then eat their own creations. Drop a small tree with battery powered lights in your kids room. They can use it as a nightlight and it offers them their own bit of sparkle. Let them visit a dollar store or a website with you to order a few small ornaments that they select.

Have your kids pick out their own gifts at the holidays for mom and dad, and for their siblings and then have them wrap the gifts themeselves to make it more special for them. Offering small tips on wrapping and working with them will make it seem more fun to them and give them the idea that giving gifts is as much fun as getting them.

Here are a few tips to help you get your Christmas light display in order.

Begin at the beginning. If you’re new to all this, light up just a few things and focus on those, such as the shrubbery or your fencing. Expand that next year.

Use lighting that is rated for outdoors. Dont’ ever taken indoor lighting and expect it to perform for you well outside where the climate is a great deal different.

There is a type of lighting for every situation, uplighting, twinkling lights or perhaps just a single spotlight can be used in given sitautions. Know the best kind of lighting for your situation.
Test your light strings and fix them BEFORE you put them up. It will save you climbing up and down on that ladder when the weather gets yukky out there. Cover your connections with electrical tape or some other waterproofed method to avoid an issue with electrical safety. Keep  your lighting in good shape and make sure that you double inspect it. When you put it away as well as when you take it out, take a long hard look at it. Start at the bottom. Start at the base of the shrub, tree or other items that you are decorating and wrap your way to the top. Location location location. If that tree can’t be seen from the front, don’t bother with it. instead decorate the shubbery or the front of something that can be seen unless you’re making the display for a private backyard get together. Keep it simple. There is such a thing as overkill. Subtle twinkling can be awesome in all different locations but too many in one place mean that the best won’t get noticed. Do the unexpected things.  Set a single spotlight on a wreath on your door, or uplight a tree and add cardinal ornaments to an outside tree, or a single snowy owl to the underside of a pine tree. Don’t be like everyone else, add your own personal touches to it all. Don’t leave your lighting on overnight. Set stringent hours and turn it off. Your neighbors as well as your electric bill won’t suffer for your holiday decorating.

Getting the best out of your baking means planning ahead a little bit. Specialty pans, decorating equipment and extra pastry bags can help you a lot, but those things can only help so much. Plotting a course, planning an entire day to perhaps bake with a friend and get ahead on your holiday baking will mean a lot more.

Holiday cookie Exchanges
One great tip for holiday baking is to phone a few friends and then, each of you plan on baking several dozen cookies in any given day. Then take part in a cookie exchange.

It can be set up to be quite easily accomplished and be a really festive event in its own right. A small cookie exchange can work much like this, and be a really fun happening. You’re all baking one dozen cookies to exchange with each person and one dozen for the table.

How a Cookie Exchange Works
Each of you bakes on a given day. The next day or a subsequent day, you meet at one persons home. The cookie exchange works like this. If you have six people who are taking part, you will bake seven dozen cookies. One dozen goes on the table, one dozen to each exchange participant.

Casual Exchange Event
The event itself is a treat, where the extra dozen cookies go out on trays on the table, along with coffee, punch or eggnog and everyone gets a taste of what they will get in the cookie exchange. Drinks might include coffee, tea, eggnog, milk, if there are children involved and there usually will be, along with soft drinks perhaps.

Depending on when your event takes place, you may want to limit the participation of the children and offer other than soft drinks as well.

Christmas is glitz and glamor and bright lights, but its also that feeling of being at home, relaxed with the people you love. It’s friends dropping in and being able to welcome them with open arms, regardless of how unexpected the visit might be.

Give your best to the holidays with some holiday entertaining tips that will keep you from feeling frazzled when you have drop in guests as most of us do during the holiday seasons.

Plan ahead-with Small Gifts.
Make sure that you’ve got a few small gifts tucked away for people you may have inadvertently forgotten. Particularly when a child drops in with your own children, you want to have a small toy that will be perfect for either sex, such as a game or games to offer them

Make it early.

Bake and freeze some cookies ahead of time that freeze well so that when drop in guests are here you have something special to offer them. Christmas cookies can be baked well ahead of time in many cases and will come out of the freezer as nicely as they went into it. You’ll be well served to have a few dozen in the freezer to treat your holiday drop-ins.

Keep a Few Cocktails and Drinks in House

Make sure to keep a bottle of wine and some soft drinks in house so that when those drop in guests arrive, and they inevitably will when you’re most harried and unready, you’ve got the makings of a lovely evening for them. Keeping a bottle of wine ready as well as some Christmas nibblers will see you already prepared for even the most discerning of guests. A bottle of red wine, one of white and a bottle of something to make Irish coffee will be enough to keep you prepared for a warm holiday evening of conversation.