With Christmas around the corner, it’s time to take out the crystal, dust the chandeliers and put up the tree!  However, in light of the recession and economic crunch, holidaymakers everywhere have had to cut back on Christmas spending.   When a large chunk of your budget is devoted to buying gifts for your friends and family, as well as on your festive feasting, it is hardly surprising that less and less is being spent on home decorations.

But with a little improvisation and a few inexpensive items, wonders can be wrought!  Today, I will highlight a few ways to use brandy glasses to decorate your home for the festive season, add to your interior decor scheme, and other ways of using them in your home.

1)       As festive lights

Fill several brandy glasses with water until they are about a quarter full.  Then light a few tea lights and put one in each glass carefully.  The flame from the tea lights will reflect off the water and cause the glass to glimmer and sparkle beautifully.  You can also add small flowers into the glass, such as orchids, and use the glass as your table’s centrepiece.  Another option is to slip a small mistletoe garland around the glass, tie a braided length of red and green ribbon around it, or twirl silver tinsel around the stem of the glass.

2)       As dinnerware

Brandy glasses don’t just have to hold drinks – they can be used to hold food as well!   Here are a few examples of the sort of food you can place in them. You can fill a quarter of the glass with mayonnaise, before placing shrimps, and celery sticks in it for a delicious shrimp salad.  The glasses can also be used to hold dessert – a fuss free option would be to crush Oreo cookies in a bowl, before spooning it into the glass and topping it with ice cream and chocolate sprinkles.

3)       As decorative pieces

You can fill brandy glasses with small, multicoloured glass beads and use them as table   centrepieces.  Other options include chunks of cheap crystal, layers of coloured sand (or          coloured rice – it’s amazing what you can do with food dye!), and solid coloured glass marbles.            Be creative, and let your imagination go wild – great table centrepieces can make for             conversation fodder or can create an interesting topic to break the ice among your guests.

4)       As snack holders

Fill your brandy glasses to the brim with candies, gummy bears, M&Ms, or miniature peppermint canes!  Not only will they look lovely, but your guests will have lots of fun dipping into them and finding their favourite snack.  You can either leave them lying around the house where they can act as decorative pieces (but be sure to put the base of the glass in a small dish of water to avoid ants), or carry them around by the stem from group to group as you offer the nibbles to your guests.