5 Best Places to Save on Holiday Decorations

Holiday decor can be surprisingly bad for your personal finances. You start with one cheery garland, and next thing you know, you're three wreaths in and your savings account is taking a beating. (This is my first Christmas in a new house and it is hard to not deck all of my halls!)

But you don't have to go full Grinch mode to keep your holiday hijinks on budget. You can find great deals on decor in a lot of places, some of them unexpected. Here are a few places to look.

1. Thrift stores

Pretty much every thrift store I've ever been inside has shelf after shelf of Christmas decor for the picking year-round, but especially as the holidays get closer. And while thrift store prices have certainly gotten higher lately, you can still find some great deals.

Sure, you're going to end up with some eclectic decorations if you try to keep strictly to what's available at the thrift store. But you can find truly unique items that haven't been sold in decades! (And a whole lot of cheap nonsense. Shop with care.)

I especially love the thrift store for finding holiday dinnerware and glassware. I have a great set of Irish coffee mugs with festive scenes that I picked up for a few bucks and use every year.

2. Craft stores

The Christmas decorations have been on the shelves since early October at my local craft store. And, even better, the closer we get to the holidays, the cheaper those decorations seem to get.

Some amount of that is going to be the nature of these stores. Most of the big chain craft stores put a ridiculous price on anything seasonal so they can continuously mark it down. But that means you can score good deals if you're willing to wait until just before (or even right after) the holiday.

3. Dollar stores

My local dollar stores have some surprisingly nice Christmas decorations, including a veritable army of Christmas gnomes, shiny ornaments, themed tableware, Christmas tree lights, and even Santa hats for festive holiday photos.

And that's just the pre-made stuff! There is no end to what you can come up with with a little imagination and $10 at the dollar store. (If you're inspirationally challenged, just do a quick internet search for "holiday decor dollar store" and say goodbye to the next three hours of your life. You're welcome.)

4. Hardware stores/garden centers

The kind of holiday decor you'll find at the local hardware store and/or garden center will depend a lot on the store itself, but the big-box stores have been all-hands-on-deck with Christmas decor before we even finished handing out Halloween candy. 

At the very least, you'll likely find a ton of trees, lights, and those blow-up lawn ornaments, most of which will be on sale randomly throughout the season (and half-off before Santa hits the sleigh). Because nothing says Merry Christmas quite like a 10-foot-tall inflatable Stormtrooper with a candy cane. Ho ho ho, pew pew pew!

5. Drug stores

Many years ago, I had a last-minute Christmas light emergency (yes, it's totally a thing). After hitting several big-box stores, I finally stopped at a local drug store out of sheer desperation. And what do you know, while the Walmart had been empty, the drug store actually had shelf after shelf of lights. Turns out I wasn't the only one who didn't know what a trove of Christmas decor the drug store would be.

Keep in mind, if you're early in the season, you're definitely going to pay a premium for drug store decor. But, wait until closer to the holiday, and you can get some seriously great deals on everything as they try to make room for the tons of Valentine-themed nonsense sure to follow.

Picking the payment method to suit the shop

If you're going to be Christmas shopping all over the place, make sure you have a gameplan for your credit cards. Pretty much every place on this list will fall into a different type of bonus category, so you may need a variety of cards to maximize your rewards. If that sounds like too much work, choose a good flat-rate card to use everywhere, such as a cash back rewards card with a 2% rate on all purchases.

Timing is everything

I focused this list on places the average person may not think of first when it comes to shopping for decor. But I'd be remiss if I didn't say that all of the usual suspects, like Walmart and Amazon, are certainly also places to find good deals on Christmas decorations. I'll also throw T.J. Maxx (and similar stores) into the ring as somewhere for good finds.

As you may have picked up by now, the real trick to finding Christmas decor deals is timing. The closer you get to the day, the more sales you'll see. Of course, there will also be much less inventory, so the selection will suffer. 

The thin line between getting great stuff, and enjoying great prices, is one we all must walk. Tread carefully.