Decorating for the holidays can be both expensive and emotionally draining. But you can decorate your home beautifully--on a budget--by following just a few simple suggestions.

First, you can create a happy holiday impression on your guests by simply concentrating your decorating efforts on your front door. Surrounding the entrance to your home with colorful lights, interwoven with garlands of greenery, offers a cheery "Welcome Home" atmosphere, without the need for ladders and endless strings of lights.

If putting up all of your decorations has become more of a chore than a delight during the holiday season, consider dividing your collection in half and alternating them every other year. That will require only half the amount of work, and the decorations will have more meaning, since you'll be putting up different ones every year.

If you spend extra money on costly additives for keeping your Christmas tree from turning brown, you can take heart from the National Christmas Tree Association, which says that plain tap water is the best source of moisture for your tree. In fact, some commercial additives and home concoctions can actually be detrimental to a tree