Storage shelves with baskets are popular for home or office decorating and gift-giving anytime. Yet, the holidays offer a variety of opportunities to use them in festive ways in your home or office -- or give them as gifts. A little creativity will go a long way towards utilizing storage shelves, baskets and basket benches in your holiday decorating and in creating unique gifts for family and friends.

Baskets

Store gift-wrapping materials such as gift bags, flat wrap, ribbon and bows, gift tags, tape and scissors in a basket. Use another basket to keep your greeting card list with cards, pens, decorative envelope stickers and postage stamps.

Fill a basket with small gifts for your postal carrier, paper deliverer and other special people at home or in a workplace. Consider, also, candles, scented room fresheners, fireplace matches, candle lighters, and spare Christmas bulbs and fuses for your indoor and outdoor lights.

Utilize baskets without setting them on a shelf. Fill a wicker basket with scented pine cones or live greenery for a seasonal-scented table centerpiece. Put decorative soaps and holiday towels in a cloth basket for a bathroom decoration. Use wicker baskets for gift baskets to give to friends. Wrap filled baskets with cellophane wrap, and tie a ribbon around the basket.

Storage Shelves, Baskets

Book cases, what-not shelves and open-frame shelves for baskets offer holiday decorating and storage areas for any room of the home or office. Decorate the baskets to match the design of the room they are placed in. You may also want to move a bookcase shelf or a basket shelf near your Christmas tree or into a room where it is not’t normally placed in order to provide some extra holiday storage. Many narrow what-not shelves can fit into tight spots, yet hold up to four baskets for storing seasonal items. Place holiday decorations on the top and/or shelves of your narrow storage unit.

Tie wide ribbon bows through the basket handles to decorate any baskets you place in the shelving units. Consider using ribbon to tie candy canes, holiday-shaped cookie cutters, Christmas stockings or Christmas ornaments onto the basket handles. Drape holiday fingertip towels over the basket edges for use in the bathroom or kitchen. Arrange small red or green doilies over the basket edges for hallway or bedroom basket shelves.

In the kitchen use shelving with baskets to hold seasonal napkins and paper cups and plates for unexpected guests. Keep the baking items you plan to use throughout the season in baskets. Put heavier items like flour and sugar containers or a Christmas cookie jar on the top of your storage shelves. Baskets can separate cookie cutters and mint or candy molds from decorative sugars and sprinkles for your cookies and cakes. Keep some colorful plastic wrap or treat bags in a basket to be able to quickly wrap up some goodies to send home with friends.

Basket Benches

Place a basket storage bench in the entryway of your home or in the family room, den or dining room. Use the seat surface of the bench to display a nativity set, Christmas village or collectible figurines. Arrange the items on a decorative table runner, velvet fabric or a piece of glittered cotton or polyester batting.

Trim the baskets under the bench to match the decorating theme on the bench seat. Tie strands of natural or colored raffia around the basket handles to match your display. Or, loop the twine hangers of star, angel or Baby Jesus ornaments through the top of the basket handles. For a Christmas village, bend some short pieces of artificial holly vines or pine greenery around the basket handles. Highlight elegant collectibles with velvet or gold ribbons and bows tied through the basket handles.

Incorporate storage shelves with baskets in your holiday decorating theme. The shelving with baskets can store household or Christmas items. Use ribbons and your imagination to colorfully decorate the baskets. The wood shelves by themselves can display hobbies, collections or a snow scene, a lighted village or nativities. Throughout your home baskets may be placed in various configurations for a splash of designer color. Trim them to carry out a party theme, to sort and display gift items or to give as gifts to family, friends or business associates. Decorating storage shelves, baskets and basket storage benches in your home or office will ring in the spirit of the season, warm your heart and become a memorable holiday tradition.