Nothing spreads the warmth and fuzziness of the holiday season the way candles do. But be careful–candles are potentially deadly. The average number of household candle fires occurs during December, with Christmas day bringing the most number of candle fires in a year. About 40% of candle fires occur in bedrooms and account for approximately 30% of fire-related deaths.

So what can you do to prevent this from happening?

The best candle safety tip I can give is to not burn candles at all. You can buy very realistic flameless, battery-operated candles made out of real wax. Some of them are scented and come in holiday motifs, such as this set of winter scene candles from flamelesscandles.net. These make the perfect addition to any holiday display without having to worry about fire-related accidents taking place.

But if you must insist on using real candles, make sure you don’t leave them unattended and that you snuff them out before leaving a room or going to sleep. Keep them away from things that can easily catch fire, like curtains or magazines. Place your candles in sturdy candle holders large enough to collect the dripping wax. Keep candle wicks trimmed to a quarter of an inch, and extinguish pillar candles once they’re two inches away from the holder.

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Decorating your dining table for Christmas can be as elegant or as simple as you want, but you don’t have to spend a lot of money to make it uplifting and eye-catching. If you’re a little strapped for cash, work on a budget then decide on your theme. The traditional red-and-green always works, or you can go along with your home’s color scheme and use your table decorations to complement it.

A wreath on the center of the table makes for a nice holiday centerpiece. You can decorate it with objects that you’d like to use as a theme, or put ribbons and bows if you have no theme in mind. Place candles inside the wreath, but make sure that the wax doesn’t come into contact with anything that could start a fire.

Continue to carry out the theme using table napkins. Get two napkins of different colors for each table setting; place one on top of the other or roll them together. Tie them with a colorful wired ribbon and arrange them artfully on the center of each plate.

You could also get dishes according to your table’s theme. For example, if your theme is poinsettias, purchase plates, cups, and saucers with poinsettia patterns. If you have printed plates, make sure that your table cloth and napkins come in plain colors so your dining table doesn’t get overwhelmed by too many patterns.

Repeating the color scheme or pattern is essential to giving your dining table a unified look. Happy decorating!

Decorating your front yard for the holidays need not be an extravagant affair. Ready-made yard decorations are available at your local mall, but a real one-of-a-kind display is a nice combination of store-bought decors and homemade ones.

Christmas lights are of course, the most readily-available decorations you can buy at stores. Simple strings of plain white lights is enough to do wonders to your home. Wrap them around a tree in the front of your house; depending on the size of the tree, you may need about ten strings of a hundred lights each. The idea here is to wrap each strand around individual branches to give the tree a starlit, frosted look.

Use net lights for low bushes and shrubbery, especially trimmed ones. Small evergreen shrubs are perfect for these lights, and they’re real easy to install and remove. Get these lights in green to emphasize your garden at night.

For outlining your windows, walkways, and railings, use rope lights. These are especially made for outdoor decorating and are great for those who don’t have hours to spend for stringing up lights. You can even use them indoors to keep you warm!

Make sure you inspect the wires on each string of lights before installing them; look out for any frayed or broken wires. Before buying a string of lights, have them tested to make sure that each bulb is working.

A wreath on your front door is a warm and subtle way of saying, “Welcome to my home.” But aside from displaying them on the door to greet your guests, there are many other places indoors where you can use your Christmas wreath as an elegant decoration for the room.

Consider hanging a wreath inside the guest bathroom or the living to extend the warm, festive feel. Decorate it with red, gold, and green ornaments like poinsettias, holly berries, and artificial gold feathers, or choose a wreath that matches the color scheme of the room where you intend to hang it.

Children love it when their rooms are especially decorated for the holidays. Turn the wreath-decorating into a crafts project with the kids by getting a bare wreath and allowing them to personalize it with their names and decorate it with a theme like sports, pets, or good old Christmas. Hang the wreath above their beds or on their doors.

Fresh wreaths are also a great way to add a Yuletide scent in any room. You can make your own by getting eucalyptus leaves, fresh evergreens, pine cones, or berries and attaching them to a wreath frame. If you don’t have time to create a homemade wreath, you can order a fresh one from your florist. Alternately, you can also place a drop or two of cinnamon and apple-scented essential oils on an artificial wreath.

Christmas wreaths provide an instant decorative touch that can be placed in any room and on unexpected places. They’re so easy to customize according to your home’s color scheme and if stored properly, artificial wreaths can last you for many Christmases to come.

Just because you have no lawn and no tree in your apartment, doesn’t mean you can’t capture the warmth and fuzziness of the holidays. Don’t let the limited amount of space limit your creativity. Here are a few decorating ideas you can use when you jazz up your apartment for the holidays.

Hang items like wreaths on your walls in order to save floor space. The idea is to avoid cluttering your apartment with holiday decorations. Think up of ways to creatively arrange other decors in a vertical capacity so your apartment doesn’t get too overwhelmed.

Put garlands on your door frame and decorate it with pine cones, ribbons in Christmas colors, and little decorative balls. You can also wrap Christmas lights around it too.

Centerpieces are a holiday staple; create or buy a centerpiece for your dining room table or the coffee table in your living room.

If you’d like to have a Christmas tree in your place, get one that’s only two or three feet tall and decorate it with miniature balls, lights, and small ornaments. Place it in a corner of your living room so you don’t stumble into it. A balcony also makes a great place for a Christmas tree, if you have one at your apartment.