Eco-friendly merrymaking

New Year is round the corner. If you are yet to decide about the decoration for the coming event, here are a few eco-friendly and cost effective ideas to do up your place. Make sure that your attempt at beautifying gratifies all the senses.

Collect the outer leafy covers of maize and sort them out in terms of size. Bring out your water colours and brushes and streak the leafy covers in various hues and leave them to dry. Staple each whorl to the tip of the last whorl to desired lengths and hang them up as festoons. Collect coconut husks and tear them apart with your fingers till they appear uniform in texture. Spread them evenly on a newspaper.

Bring out your turmeric or powdered food colours. Sprinkle the colour over the husk. Repeat the process with the colours of your choice. You can use the coloured husks as the flooring of the manger.

Bring out all the Christmas and New Year cards that you have received. Tie a string across the manger area and clip the cards on the string at equal intervals. You could fasten balloons in the gaps to add to the festive look.

Bring out all the unused plastic water bottles and cut them in such a way that the conical part is separated from the rest. Fill the cylindrical base with different coloured waters (use food colours or paints), and place them strategically in the main décor or as a border. Float multi-coloured sequins in them during the day and lighted candles in them for evenings. When placing slim lit candles in open areas, place the conical section of the bottle sans the cap over them so that they serve as transparent lampshades.

Fill small plates with chocolates and toffees wrapped in bright colours as little mounds and place them between the candles. These can be given away to young guests and refilled from time to time.

If you have interesting pictures or posters relevant to the holiday season, tape them onto the background wall tastefully.

Get a huge cardboard carton, fill it with all the sundry objects lying around, which may not be directly relevant with the Christmas season, to declutter the place. Instead of stowing the carton away, use it as the canvass to display some precious photographs sourced from your family album and place it at a vantage point. Do not be surprised if it turns out to be the conversation piece that will take you down the memory lane.

Flower arrangement need not always translate as bouquets, buy a couple of yards of strung marigold or chrysanthemum, which are likely to last for a couple of days in this weather and hang them as festoons. The smell of these flowers will keep the mosquitoes and flies away. Light incense sticks and insert them in potted plants, so that the ash can spill into the soil besides making the area fragrant.

Play soft instrumental music to please the ears while filling the home with harmony.