An Easy Do-It-Yourself Holiday

Prepping for the holidays doesn’t have to be high stress or high cost. We asked home expert Katie Brown, host of Lifetime’s “Next Door With Katie Brown,” for tips.

Question: How can you make a table festive on the cheap?

Answer: If you don’t have silverware that matches, buy some inexpensive ribbon and wrap the handle of each piece. Also, take stockings that you would normally hang by the fireplace, and hang them on the backs of dining chairs instead. The stockings can be filled with candy or party favors.

Q: What about making a centerpiece?

A: I like bringing the outside in, but that doesn’t have to mean spending a lot on flowers. Pick up an inexpensive glass fishbowl and fill it with golden pears, red apples, green limes, mixed nuts and pine cones. Throw in some cranberries, and push a few flowers into the arrangement--red gerber daisies, or carnations if you can’t afford daisies. Add water to the bowl and the colors and textures of the fruit and greenery become magnified. They almost glow! You can use all the fruit after, and the whole centerpiece costs only about $15.

Q: Can you suggest easy-to-prepare holiday party foods?

A: I love hors d’oeuvres, but they are so petite and little, and sometimes that’s not what you are looking for at a party. Put out a ham or a turkey instead. For sides, try corn pudding, homemade biscuits and cranberry chutney. Big things are easier to make than individual canapes, and even if it’s just a cocktail party, people can make their own mini-sandwiches. If you don’t want to cook, buying a baked ham or turkey from the grocery store isn’t that expensive.

Q: Where can you find an inexpensive gift?

A: I am a swap meet junkie. The Long Beach Flea Market is my favorite. When buying gifts, I love to get things that are old but have character and personal meaning. For example, I’m from Michigan, so I might give a family member a vintage book on the building of Mackinac Bridge.

Q: Any tips on how to save on wrapping paper, ribbons and tags?

A: You can get a whole roll of butcher paper to wrap with and spend money, instead, on pretty tartan ribbon. Or take a fruit, like an apple or a pear, paint it gold, and stamp it on the butcher paper for your own signature wrapping paper. I also love getting old tins, vintage mittens or stockings to wrap things in. Burlap is great, too. You can get burlap sacks at any hardware store. Put the gift inside and tie it with a big, bright bow.

“Next Door With Katie Brown: A Very Katie Christmas” airs 7-8 p.m. Wednesday on Lifetime. Brown recently opened her own store, Katie Brown Workshop, at 141 S. Kings Road in Los Angeles.