With just a few days before Thanksgiving, I am happily looking forward to visiting with extended family and sitting down to a meal full of traditions. For the last few years, we have hosted Thanksgiving at our house, and it’s one of my favorite times to wrap ourselves in memories that make us smile, stories that cause fits of laughter, and gratefulness to just be together.

I also not-so-secretly look forward to Thanksgiving because (in all caps, cue the angelic singing) CHRISTMAS! November 25th is the first official day of Christmas decorating at my house, and the kids have been asking me about it since September. I tend to go over the top when it comes to Christmas decorations. That’s how my mom always did it, and it made for lots of special memories when we were kids.

I’m a big fan of transitional décor—things you can quickly swap out or change to transition between holidays. Check out my post about tablescapes. One of my favorite, inexpensive ways to add color and change the look of a space is by using vase fillers. Today I’m sharing five easy and beautiful filler ideas to spread some holiday cheer from me to you!

Five Holiday Vase Fillers

01. Rustic Assortment

Pinecones, assorted nuts, yarn balls, natural foliage, or cranberries are all great options to keep a rustic theme running throughout your decorations. Natural pinecones can look minimalistic and clean, but you can also add slices of dried orange or even find pinecones at the store scented with cinnamon. Like these! Or, you can use metallic spray paint and glitter to add a little sparkle to your mantle.

Jars of various sizes partially filled with chestnuts or hazelnuts add a classic touch as a base for pillar candles or tea lights. You can add a little color with a festive ribbon or go completely rustic with jute.

Another inexpensive route you can take to achieve a rustic look is to use a pack of foam balls from the dollar store. Completely cover the foam balls with jute or yarn, and use them to fill up a large vase or apothecary jar. Yarn in natural colors or matching your color theme can be an enjoyable addition to a sideboard or bookcase shelf. Add a string of fairy lights, and voila’, Christmas magic!

02. Natural Foliage

Natural foliage is a standard option, but with a few tweaks can be especially striking. For example, The Inspired Home had an excellent idea for using plastic wrap to create a gorgeous cranberry suspension. First, she used alternating layers of pine cuttings, plastic wrap, and cranberries to fill a sizeable cylindrical vase. Then, after everything was packed down tight, she filled the vase with water, giving the effect of floating cranberries on ice.

Cranberries also make a gorgeous base for pillar candles, and with a garland of greenery wrapped around the bottom of the vase, it becomes a show-stopper. If you have an especially large apothecary jar, add a bright spot of color by adding layers of limes, cranberries, and lemons. Finally, add a topper of fresh pine cuttings or mistletoe, and you have a beautiful, simple to create, centerpiece.

Pine cuttings can be used in various ways, but one trick I like to do is save the pine cuttings from our Christmas tree and then use them to fill a large mason jar. Add a string of fairy lights in first, so when the lights warm up, the pine needles give off a wonderful scent. Just be careful with this option to change out your pine clippings often! You don’t want them to get too dry and catch fire. You can also use longer pine cuttings mixed with faux berries to create an attractive filler in a tall, narrow vase or jar.

I have one last idea for you with natural foliage fillers—poinsettias! Granted, these will be faux flowers, but the gorgeous bright red shouts Christmas cheer and looks pretty mixed with small gold ornaments of various sizes. If you love traditional Christmas colors, this would be a super easy option to spruce up a tabletop or shelf.

03. Winter Scenes

We have now reached my all-time favorite Christmas vase filler—the miniature winter scene! My children are mesmerized by these every year, and I have so much fun creating new ones to delight them with. You can use a variety of bases to build on. My all-time favorite is something you might not expect; Epsom salt. It looks just like snow inside a jar and is an excellent stable base for standing up small figurines, tiny Christmas village houses, and pine cuttings for “trees.” Of course, you can also use “fake snow,” that fluffy stuff in the bag, but it is harder to layer on top of. However, if you are lining your jar with a string of lights, the fake snow gives off a pretty glow throughout the jar, whereas the Epsom salts reflect the light upward. This option doesn’t have to break the bank either. Hit your local dollar store up for glass jars, the large fishbowl size works great, and the little Christmas village figurines and houses that come out every year. They aren’t perfect close up, but put them in a vase and surround them with a glow of lights, and they become magical!

04. Candy

Candy is a quick go-to in a pinch. A variety of old-fashioned candies in an array of jar sizes can add Christmas cheer in an instant. Of course, you can’t go wrong with a quick mix of red, white, and green mints or candy sticks striped in your color of choice.

05. Ornaments

This option is always the first one mentioned, but I like to put it at the end, just to be different. It is a classic choice and pretty, especially on a mantle where the reflective surfaces add brightness and shine. Next, fill any large jar with your favorite round Christmas ornaments. I prefer to use plastic ornaments simply because I live in fear of my kids dumping them and covering themselves in tiny shards of shattered glass, but if you don’t have kids (or like living on the edge), glass ornaments will work too. Once again, the dollar store or Amazon is my go-to because you can get tubes of plastic ornaments for next to nothing. And no, the quality isn’t that great, but you don’t need it to be because it is blurred inside a vase and works perfectly for adding color and sparkle!

I also like to involve my kids in this project. We write the different bible verses on the baubles, or other things we are grateful for during the Christmas season, or maybe lovely things about one another, so we end up with a jar filled with good thoughts and memories, as well as beauty!

I hope this shortlist has inspired you to try something new and that you find something you love. If you do try something out, I’d love to hear about it! Leave your comments or pictures below and share your lovely creations with me. I hope your days before this Thanksgiving are filled with Christmas cheer!