"You can keep artificial garland and just change the bows or adornments," she said. "Put a fresh wreath on the door because when people come in they smell the evergreen scent. It sets the mood for the decorations inside. Then light an evergreen-scented candle inside, and people won't know if your decorations are fresh or not."
Another idea is to use brown grocery bags for wrapping paper, she said.
"Brown bags are very natural looking," she said. "You wrap them inside out, and then put a big tartan plaid or something like it on the present. When Christmas is over, the bows can be saved and used again."
Fresh fruit, artichokes and pomegranates are also popular this year, she said.
"You can take a bunch of pine cones and apples and place them in a bucket on the porch," she said. "It costs virtually nothing, and looks great. Then you can feed the apples to the squirrels after Christmas."
Whether they are buying new or using what they have, people are using traditional decorations, she said.
In previous years, purple, gold, pink and other flashy colored decorations have been popular, but this year, people are going back to red, she said.
"This year people are keeping it simple and traditional," she said. "They are putting simple white lights around the windows and candles in the windows, instead of a wreath in every window."
Elaine Sell also has noticed people tightening their belts in recent years. As the co-owner of Christmas Magic, a shop in Havre de Grace that opened in 2000, Sell has heard a lot of feedback from customers about decorations, she said.
"Most people are going traditional again," said Sell, who is closing the shop after the Christmas season this year. "And some people are just tightening their belts and not buying. They want to hang onto their money until the economy gets better."
But the temptation is too great for some people who feel they have to have some new decorations.
Vicki Arnold of Street decorated her home with 30 Christmas trees, seven of which she bought in the past two weeks, she said.
Although she uses some of the same trees, she changes the decorating theme of the trees each year, she said.
Last year, she decorated a fluorescent green tree with Mardi Gras decorations and this year she decorated the tree with a Grinch theme, she said.
Although she mixes her old decorations with the new, she didn't cut back this year.
"I'm fueling the economy," she said. "Someone has to. I always go over the top when I decorate. I'm very whimsical in my decorating."
