TEN TIPS TO DECORATE YOUR HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

We are only a few weeks away from Christmas! I’ve started decorating earlier this year, as we are home all the time, and our family could use some extra Christmas cheer. As a busy working mom, I enjoy Christmas decorating and have found several helpful tips to streamline the process and create pretty spaces. Hope you find these ten tips to decorate your home for Christmas helpful!

Tip #1 – Select a Color Scheme

Maybe your family is like ours and has several boxes of Christmas decor sitting in the attic or the garage. I like to re-use as much of the decor as possible, but without a color scheme, your home could start to look more like the crazy Christmas store. I like to have a streamlined and pretty look each year and that requires sticking to a color scheme.

Tip # 1 of the ten tips to decorate your home for Christmas – Select a color scheme

This year, we plan to decorate our home with a traditional Christmas color palette. Green, white, silver, and touches of red. Give some thought to the colors that you love and make you feel most comfortable, or you might like to follow current decor trends. Here are some color schemes to consider.

Traditional Colors – Red, gold, and green
Christmas Trends 2020 – White, black, navy, and natural wood tones
Classic Neutral Colors – White, beige, and gold
Unusual Colors – Pastels, pinks, and baby blues
Farmhouse colors – Red, white, green, black and white

Select colors that you love and stick to your color scheme. This is an important tip of the ten tips to decorate for Christmas.

Tip #2 – Pick a Theme to Decorate Your Home for Christmas

Selecting a theme is helpful in order to create a cohesive look. Each room could have a different theme and it works best if the theme is related and the colors are similar throughout your home. Pick a theme that complements your existing décor so that it’s pleasing to the eye.

I’m looking forward to decorating our formal dining room and living room with a red cardinal theme. I saw a cardinal this year when I was on a trip to the Midwest and immediately knew that I wanted to incorporate it into my Christmas decor. I found these red cardinals on Amazon.

For the family room, breakfast nook, and living room, I’ll stick to the same color palette but will incorporate more natural elements like poinsettias and paperwhites. I love gardening and always enjoy bringing the outdoors in. The holidays are no exception!

Some popular themes to consider are below. If you still aren’t sure on your theme, start a board on Pinterest and pin images that speak to you. You could narrow it down from there. Below are a few theme suggestions to get you started!

Nostalgic theme – Incorporate family heirlooms or keepsake pieces from years past.
Farmhouse theme – This is really popular right now! Pinterest has some great ideas on how to incorporate farmhouse decor. Better Homes and Gardens recently published an article showing that farmhouse decor searches on Pinterest are up 900% over the last five years.
Minimalist Christmas – Incorporate just a few ornaments and a tree with minimal décor.
Natural Decor – Incorporate nature-inspired décor and fresh plants and flowers. Poinsettias, paperwhites, fresh Christmas trees, pine cones, Christmas cactus are great options for a nature-inspired theme.

Use natural elements like the rosemary tree and the cyclamen shown in this picture

Selecting a theme helps to create a cohesive and curated look.

Tip #3 – Make a Plan For Each Room

It helps to have a plan for each room. First, decide which rooms you’d like to decorate. I always decorate the rooms downstairs but none of the bedrooms. While we love Christmas decor, having a calm atmosphere in our bedroom is important to me so I don’t like to incorporate lots of decor and I try to be very minimalist. Don’t forget outdoor spaces as you build your decor plan. You may have a patio or a porch that needs to be decorated too!

Tip #4 – Decide What You Plan to Make vs. Buy

This year more than any other year, you might want to make a few decorations yourself. There are several really easy to create decor ideas that you can leverage. We are creating a pom pom garland for our Christmas tree. Some popular DIY options are below. I’ll be sharing a few DIY projects on the blog in the days ahead.

Christmas wreaths
Gingerbread houses
Ornaments
Garlands
Flower arrangements

You might want to create a calendar of what you’d like to accomplish each week and make sure you have the supplies handy for each DIY project.

Tip #5 – Shop Early to Decorate Your Home for Christmas

Plan your list and shop early. If you plan to shop online for décor this year, make sure to shop early in order to avoid shipping delays. I’ve had a few items come later than expected or come in different batches. It drives me crazy to start decorating but not have all the supplies on hand to finish what I started.

I’ve found that most stores like Hobby Lobby offer 50% off deals earlier than ever. This year I noticed 50% off sales start in September for Christmas decor!

Make sure to shop early to get all of the items you need on time.

Tip #6 – Put Away Existing Décor

Put away any decor items from previous seasons so that you can start decorating for Christmas. I have lots of fall decor and it’s important to spend the time to put it away. This can take time but is a necessary step. You’ll probably want to do this ahead of time so that you can start fresh on your Christmas décor.

Make sure to clean before and after putting out new decor. It makes it much easier to start with a clean slate. Some often-overlooked areas to clean are windows, baseboards, lighting fixtures, and blinds. I know! This is not a fun trip but trust me it will make all the difference when you have your décor up. You’ll probably have to do another round of cleaning once everything is decorated as dust and sparkles tend to find a way to get everywhere.

Try to unpack your décor in the garage or in a designated spot so that you can keep dust from spreading. Organize and select the items that you plan to use this year and make sure everything looks good and is as clean before using it.

Don’t forget to clean as you decorate! A clean home goes a long way. Unpack decor in a designated spot to reduce dust and sparkles from going all over.

Tip #7 – Repurpose Decor Items

Every year when we take out our Christmas décor some items need to be repurposed because it just doesn’t look great anymore after being in storage for so long. I dislike throwing things out if it can be reused again. Here are some tips on how to repurpose decor items.

Old wreaths – Add additional trim to wreaths to give them new life. You can add faux flowers, greenery, or berries. Craft stores have several options and a few stems can make a big difference.
Faux flowers – If your faux flowers don’t look great in the vase due to bent stems or some petals that don’t look the best, you can repurpose these flowers by creating ornaments or using it to create one of a kind Christmas artwork, or adding it to other arrangements.
Broken ornaments – As long as the ornaments are not glass, you could re-use as part of a centerpiece or as part of your Christmas gift wrap.

These are just some ideas and if you really think about it you could re-purpose so many items and reduce waste! Think creatively and incorporate this tip of the ten tips to decorate for Christmas

Repurpose as many items as possible to reduce waste!

Tip #8 – Edit Your Decor

Once you’ve completed a room, take a look at it and edit it! A great book doesn’t come about without a lot of editing. Similarly, a beautifully decorated room requires editing! I often remove about 25% of the items that I originally started with in order to have a clean and refined look. Move things around until you are happy with the end result. Create vignettes throughout the space to keep things interesting.

Tip #9- Engage Your Senses

Not only does your home need to look great, but it’s also best to think about the overall sensory experience. Smell, sound, and touch elements as you decorate. Add some candles or potpourri so that your home smells like Christmas.

Christmas music is a great way to change the mood in your home. Listen to some of your favorite Christmas tunes to get in the mood! It’s fun to have Christmas music playing when you decorate so that it creates a great atmosphere.

You could use throws or pillows to add texture and interest to your space. This year, I bought the Pottery Barn red cardinal pillow to complement my cardinal theme. Add blankets or throws throughout your space. This is my favorite of the ten tips to help you decorate your home for Christmas because I love adding cozy elements!

Don’t forget to consider smell, sound and touch elements as you decorate.

Tip #10 – Enjoy the Process

Decorating for the holidays should be a fun activity! This is the one time of year that you really should make the effort to include all of your family in the process. Often family members have an area of preference or a certain task that they like to do. My husband is great at putting up the tree and hanging all the lights. My kids love to put up ornaments. So, find the thing that each family member enjoys doing, put on the Christmas music, and get going!! (p.s. you could always go back to step#8 if things don’t go quite the day you imagined).

Don’t forget to have fun as you decorate! If you get nervous about putting up all the decor, do it in batches. Break it up and spread it out over several days or if you like to have it all done in one day get organized ahead of time and get it done. Understanding the way you like to decorate is important so that the process can be enjoyable instead of creating stress! I hope you have a great time decorating this year. Remember decor is a small part of the holiday season so make the most of it and enjoy it!

I hope these ten tips to decorate your home for Christmas helps you create a fabulous home this year!

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