I love decorating for Christmas, but when it comes to certain aspects I have a hard time spending the money on something I’m going to use for one day. I love the idea of having a totally decorated table for Christmas dinner, but so many of those items are things you will use for that day and that day only. Have you seen the price of cloth napkins? How about holiday glasses? But I have the perfect solution – hit up your local Goodwill store!
For a fraction of the price you can pick up goodies to decorate your holiday table beautifully! You can get the look you want without breaking the bank or feeling bad about purchasing those “once a year” items.
A few years back I bought some plain white dinner plates to use specifically for decorating my table for the holidays. You can pair them with just about anything, so they are quite useful. This year I decided to step things up by adding festive glasses and napkins to the mix.
I started out with a set of vintage holly glassware that was a steal at one of my local Goodwill stores. They went wonderfully with my Mid-Century modern home. For less than $15 I was able to get the six glasses, pitcher, and matching bowl. Since the only colors on the glasses were red and green I decided to stick with those for the color scheme of my table.
At another Goodwill store a few days later I hit the red and green jackpot! I was able to pick up red and green cloth napkins, green wine glasses, and some vintage figurines for the center of the table. During the holidays, most Goodwill stores will separate the holiday items so they are easier to sort through. My local store put all of their holiday and holiday colored linens on two racks near the front of the store. This worked out wonderfully since I didn’t have to dig through multiple racks to see if they had the colors I wanted. I was able to find my red and green napkins in a jiffy and move on.
My next stop was the holiday aisle in housewares. This aisle is there year round, but what you find there changes with the seasons. The closer you get to Christmas the more Christmas stuff you will find. They also had some holiday items on the end caps as well, so you have to make sure to check those as well. I found my vintage figurines on and end cap, but then found my green wine glasses mixed in with some of the other glassware and dishes.
It took less than 30 minutes to get everything together and set this festive table for the holidays. I actually have 2 more glasses and 2 more napkins, so if I needed to go up to seating for 6 I could in a jiff.
I love that for less than $25 I was able to put together this table and not feel guilty about spending money on “once a year” items. Next time you need to dress up your table for the holidays, make sure to check out your local Goodwill store!
*Disclosure: I was given a Goodwill gift card to use towards the purchases for this blog post. As always, all thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
Great advice! While spending the summer in NC, I had an unexpected opportunity to travel to Alaska – with all my winter clothes back in Orlando, I hit the local Goodwill and scored a fantastic hooded coat for $15!
That is awesome!
Such a great post! I always forget about Goodwill for household items. I love to check out their clothes and accessories. I definitely will look around a little deeper next time.
You can definitely find some great stuff there!