The Best Cleaning and Organizing Tricks of 2016 Add festive touches around your home with these creative DIY decorations that you can put together in no time. Plus, check out our DIY holiday wreaths, easy Christmas crafts, and festive table decorations!Save these Christmas decoration ideas for later by pinning this image and follow Woman's Day on Pinterest for more. A Merry MantelA Merry MantelHandcrafted from artificial greenery and bright berries, this garland will last season after season.1. ) into the 8" letters that spell out your chosen word or phrase. For each letter, cut a 3" piece of wire and wrap it with floral tape. Then, bend one end into a small loop (1" or less in diameter) and secure it with floral tape to the back of the letter toward the top. (For letters like J, T and Y, you'll need a loop on each end at the top.)) and, working bottom to top, use floral tape to secure them at the stem to the front of each letter form to create a base. Then, use hot glue to fill in the front and sides of each letter with more greenery.

(The sprigs should overlap slightly.)4. Hot-glue faux or dried berries (available at craft stores) to each letter. Once completely dry, thread a length of 2" to 3" red ribbon through the loops to hang. 50 Christmas Crafts Your Whole Family Will Love 10 Christmas Gifts that Give Back—That Your Family Actually Wants Watching These These Snow Globe Cupcakes Get Made Is Mesmerizing 15 Christmas Party Games Your Guests Will Love 20 Perfectly Paired Christmas Movie and Dinner Combos 53 Christmas Cookies That Will Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth 40 Scrumptious Recipes for Your Best Christmas Dinner Ever It's Official: Parents Have Completely Lost Their Minds This Christmas 13 Adorable Santa Desserts That Will Guarantee Your Spot On the 'Nice' List Then and Now: The Cast of "A Christmas Story" 5 Common Christmas Card Grammar Mistakes You Might Be Making Popular items for cubicle decorBolstered by an economy that has made some significant strides over the last few years and healthy corporate profits, a survey by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. shows that more of the nation’s employers are ready to break out their party hats during the holiday season.

But recognize that employers increasingly have less tolerance for annual office party shenanigans involving career busting episodes with alcohol overindulgence.Employees demonstrate little appreciation for expensive investments in an office party if their personal compensation is affected by slowing company sales that result in low salary increases and the loss of bonuses or profit sharing. The potential for increased costs to employees via Washington initiatives such as the increased costs of Obamacare is also a player in employee thoughts about office parties.Celebrate Without the Traditional Office Party - or in AdditionIt is still the holiday season, an opportunity for employers and employees to participate in team building, morale increasing holiday adventures - together. A time to involve employee families in fun interaction with their coworkers is encouraged and needed.So, if a holiday office party is affordable and wanted by your employees - hold one. Otherwise,  the emphasis on these alternatives to the holiday office party is on low-cost activities with a big fun kick.

The minimal investment of energy and time in planning and execution is also appreciated by stressed-out employees.Here are ideas to embrace the holiday spirit without committing a lot of employee time, hard earned cash, or energy. Your employees and their families will appreciate your low-key alternatives to an expensive, energy-consuming office party. Howard Deshong/StockFood Creative/Getty Images With company-supplied punch, soft drinks, and mulled cider, ask employees to bring in a plate of cookies to share with their coworkers. best pre decorated christmas treesKeep the event low pressure by specifying that bakery products are welcome, too. decorate your room for guysMake sure the company orders a supply of bakery cookies to ensure that every employee has a chance to sample a variety.what paint is the best for exterior

Make the event festive with holiday music and gift certificate prizes for the bakers of the employees’ favorite cookies. If your employees are interested, you can also sponsor a cookie exchange. Thomas Janisch/Moment Open/Getty Images In its sixth year, so well on its way to becoming an annual tradition, employees at TechSmith Corporation select a day to wear and enjoy their favorite glittery, holiday-only, ugly sweaters and sweatshirts. Selected and loved with poor taste and abandon, the contest to wear the ugliest holiday sweater of all sparks fun and laughter all day long. wholesale christmas gifts chinaAccompany the festivity with photos and company-supplied refreshments for all.home decor store las vegas VisitBritain/Britain on View / Getty Imagesluxury home decor market

A client company’s annual tradition, instead of an office party, involved closing down production four hours early on an afternoon during the holiday season. Company-supplied beer and wine and a catered sandwich fixings / hot soups or turkey lunch highlighted the festivities, but the emphasis was on employees playing games together.Card games, shuffleboard, basketball, board games, Pictionary, table tennis, pool, and more, sparked hours of fun and friendly competition and de-emphasized drinking. gyener / Getty Images Employees sign up to exchange cards with coworkers. As your company becomes larger, the cost and time involved in sending cards to all coworkers become prohibitive for many employees. Why not pull names from a hat so coworkers can still exchange cards, say 1-5, rather than send to the whole office. Or, limit cards to departments.Spread the holiday cheer with holiday cards sent in smaller doses. If using a drawing, names should be entered the same number of times as the number of cards each employee agrees to send.

Keep your recipients secret. Do the drawing at a company lunch, ugly sweater day, or cookie exchange. Hero Images / Getty Images Employees find charitable giving motivational and exciting. Pinpoint the charities your employees support or carry our more giving for the charities identified in your company philanthropic plan if you have one. Visual giving is most on display during the holidays. Employees enjoy seeing piles of food, gifts, clothing, and household items growing in the company lobby or break room.Employees build a team when they band together to paint walls for older community members to brighten their holiday season, for example. Whatever charitable pursuits you choose, you can pursue them as an alternative to the office party. Or, charitable giving can supplement any of the other ideas shared here. Ariel Skelley / Getty Images Employees may enjoy celebrating the holiday season with a potluck lunch at work. If you don't do these too often, and you alternate them with company-supplied, catered feasts, employees enjoy showing off their culinary skills.

Post a sign-up list online or in the lunch room, so employees bring a variety of foods to share.A potluck lunch is a festive occasion, especially when you combine the potluck with any of these other alternatives to the office party, including Secret Santa and Ugly Holiday Sweater Day.In an unusual twist to the traditional potluck fare, one client company with a large number of employees from various countries, asked employees to bring a traditional dish that represented their country's cuisine to the potluck.The annual holiday season potluck became the most looked forward to event of the year. Employees savored unfamiliar, but delicious dishes, that were native to their coworkers' countries of origin. - Fotosearch / Getty Images In one client company where employees worked in a manufacturing clean room environment, holiday cheer spread every year as teams of employees competed to decorate the windows that looked in on employees from outside the clean room. Employees voted on first, second, and third place windows.

You can sponsor a similar contest in your workplace. Your workplace is the image of holiday cheer throughout the season as employees vie in teams to decorate a work area, an office, a conference room, or a public area.Winners are generally voted on by other employees and the gift certificate (or another small gift) award ceremony can take place in conjunction with any other activities listed in these alternatives to an office party. Do keep in mind that when a team is competing, the prize must be shared, or the equivalent provided for each team member. Fotosearch / Getty Images Draw one employee name from the names submitted by employees who want to participate. Hold the cost-limited gift exchange at a potluck lunch. Secret Santa was a holiday-long event in one of my client companies.Secret Santa, still with a serious expenditure limit, engaged employees for several weeks as the Secret Santa planned a series of little gifts and surprises for their recipient.I remember seeing surprises in my mailbox, on my desk, and hanging on the restroom mirror.

Other Santas were even more creative - think ribbon-festooned cubicles. Half the fun was surprising the recipient while keeping the Secret Santa’s identity under wraps.Another Internet twist on Secret Santa requires that participating employees purchase their gifts on eBay with a price limit of $25, including shipping. Betsie Van Der Meer / Getty Images Because of competition for employee time, attention, energy, and investment during the December holiday season, some companies schedule a party during another time of year.Schedule your company's founding party in April, a mid-summer eve in July, or an early fall harvest in September. Every business has events and associations in its history that employees may want to celebrate with an office party.Outside of the December holiday season, venues are available and less expensive. Food, dress, decorations, and drinks can be less ambitious and more casual and fun. Run wild with your imagination. Even a picnic on the company grounds may beat the holiday blowout when employees are over-celebrated and over-stressed.