How to Decorate for the Holidays like a Minimalist
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Trees, and wreaths, and holly, oh my! When it comes to the holidays making our homes beautiful, cozy, and welcoming can be overwhelming. Here’s how to decorate your home for the holidays like a minimalist and not feel like a Scrooge.
Not only will these tips make your home festive, they will also help you from becoming overwhelmed at one of the most stressful times of the year. Oh, sorry I meant, most wonderful times of the year, right?
It’s perfectly okay if this time of year stresses you out - it stresses nearly everyone out, but we don’t talk about it because the movies tell us that this is when we are supposed to be happy, filled with joy, and smiling with family around a giant dinner table. Need tips on how to simplify this holiday season? Check out this post with 7 simple ways to enjoy the holiday season this year.
With that in mind, I want to remind you that it’s totally okay to not do ALL. THE. THINGS. First off, there are too many things to do anyway so I think it’s nearly impossible to do them all.
Let’s make a pact that before you even start getting out your decorations, I want to you to let go of your guilt. 2020 has been a tough year (to say the least) and I don’t want you finishing off this year with added guilt on your shoulders.
Secondly, this is also the busiest time of the year for most of us. On top of our everyday activities, there’s normally travel, parties, hosting, shopping, and volunteering added to the mix. The silver lining to this year is less travel, parties, and in person shopping.
If you work in the retail industry this time of year is a killer.
So, let’s be nice to ourselves to do the best we can, add some festivity to our homes, but give ourselves grace to not have to be perfect.
Less Stressing…More Enjoying!
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This week I was asked to participate in a guest post about keeping your home organized and tidy during the holiday season and I wanted to bring you some of my best tips since I only get to share one in the article.
But, a little back story before we dive in. I love the look of a minimalist house, but it’s a work in progress for me. There’s a reason I host a podcast called the Wannabe Minimalist Show. I’m working through these concepts too. While, I’ve decluttered my home, it’s got a ways to go so I brought in the experts to help.
These are the decorating tips I am embracing in my home and I know you’ll love them too. So give ‘em a try and let me know your favorite ones or the one you’ll be trying this year in the comments or in our free Wannabe Minimalist Community.
Tips for Decorating Your Home Like a Minimalist for the Holidays
#1 - Embrace a Minimalist Tree
In our home (like most) the tree is the cornerstone of our decorating. Honestly, we’ve only celebrated Christmas in our own home 3 times - once the year my daughter was born, once the year we were in Germany, and last year when we finally lived close enough to drive to my sister’s for the afternoon of family celebration. The other years we have traveled to family and woken up on Christmas morning there.
No wonder, our skinny fake tree and the stockings have been the only things that made it out in the past.
Growing up, my mom was a big collector of Hallmark ornaments and I was in on it too. I have sold, gifted, or donated about 25% of my ornaments and my daughter is helping me go though the rest this year to keep only the ones we really love.
This is the tricky kind of clutter. It’s small and sentimental. Each ornament doesn’t take up much space, but all together it’s a bunch. If there was a house fire, these are not the things I would grab and that realization has made me want to really commit to going through my ornaments this year and only keep those with a fond emotional attachment. I’m sure I could easily let go of another 25%.
Plus, look at how beautiful the trees below are. The beauty is not in the ornaments. The fun memories are in putting up the tree together and if the ornaments you keep are only the very sentimental ones, it will be the stories you tell each year too.
But, if ornaments are not a big thing in your home, you can decorate with food items like strings of popcorn and cranberries like @alphaselene.
Or you can decorate your tree with dried orange slices like @designbecomeshim. Honestly, these make beautiful decorations and the oranges smell great too.
You also can just let the beauty of the tree speak for itself and just decorate it with (or without) lights like Jet_at_Home.
#2 - Get Creative with Your “Tree”
If you do not have a tree, don’t want to purchase a real one, or can’t fit one in your home, you can get creative with how to display a tree.
I remember growing up, that my aunt and uncle used to hang their tree from the ceiling upside down. At first they did it to keep it out of reach of the grandkids, but they liked it so much that they kept hanging from their ceiling for years.
It gave them more space under the tree for presents, gave them more visual space because as in most homes our stuff sits lower to the ground and not high up by the ceiling, and was a great conversation starter. My aunt also used to comment that it was so much easier to clean under. I guess you’ll have to try it yourself and tell me if that’s true.
While hanging your Christmas tree from your ceiling is a bit too much trouble for most of us, there are some easier ways to get creative with a tree in your home.
If you have space, but do not want to use a real or fake tree you can use a ladder and run garland and lights around it. Hang your ornaments from the garland and put a star on top. Or just hang ornaments from it like this one from @emilyc.design.
If space is really limited, use your wall to create a “tree”. There are so many creative ideas you can follow.
Run a garland in a zig-zag tree pattern on the wall and then decorate with lights and ornaments like the one from @naturally_its_thrifted
Create a felt tree on the wall and have your kids stick felt ornaments to it like the one shared by @annienicethingslover
Use 2 long sticks to create the sides of a tree and run lights in a zig-zag pattern like a tree. I love the one I found posted by @belliwood_living
Finally, use different lengths of garland to create a tree on the wall. The small cute one from @almostmakesperfect would fit almost anywhere
There are so many ways to get creative with your wall space if your home is too small (or still too cluttered) to fit in a Christmas Tree. The best part about these is that they take up much less storage space and if you use live plants, they take up almost no storage as you would replace them next year.
#3 - Go with ONE color
This is how a lot of minimalist like to decorate their homes regardless of the seasons and you will see it taking over Pinterest and Instagram. Now not everyone’s into black and white, or white and tan. Those neutrals are great (and I personally would love if my home were in one neutral color palette - work in progress, remember), but if you are into color, choose your favorite and run with it.
The most cost effective and minimalistic way to decorate is to keep your bigger pieces - furniture, walls, dinnerware, etc. to neutrals and then decorate with color for the holidays, or everyday for that matter.
The easiest way - and one that does not take up much space to store in the off season - is to use pillow covers. Notice, I said pillow covers and not pillows. Even if you have pillows where the cover does not remove, you can cover them up with something else during the holidays. No need to get new pillow inserts and try to store those year round.
See what a difference a few pillow covers can make. Here are some examples from @manchesterhome613 and @linenandivory.
So what color is best for decorating? My favorite color for holiday decorations is red because it can be used for so many other holidays and it “pops” so well against neutrals and goes so well with blacks, browns, and navy.
Just be sure to keep the other decorations like christmas trees, snowflakes, snowmen, or ornaments off of the items and you can use them again for Valentine’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Veteran’s Day. Just look at how versatile it is!
For you visual people, I have a beautiful decorated red and white room from @alexanderreneedesign below. I am amazed at how just a little bit of color makes such a big difference.
Or you can also go full monochrome and stick with beige, whites, golds, and tans. I have a couple monochrome decorated rooms from @freshexchange and @thehomeicreate that you can check out for inspiration.
4. Use nature for inspiration
This is the perfect time of year to bring the outdoors in and you can do it in so many ways. I live in Southern California, so eucalyptus and evergreens are pretty easy for us to find on hikes in the neighborhood, but use whatever is local to you and it will look amazing.
Use evergreen branches and an embroidery hoop to create a simple Scandinavian inspired wreath. Good plants to use would be juniper branches, berried cedar branches, and eucalyptus. Tie them to the hoop with floral wire and you’re good to go like this one from @ohlovelybows.
Group pinecones together and display them as part of your holiday decor. The added bonus is you can go on a “pinecone hunt” with your kids or just by yourself to clear your mind so it’s like a two-for-one; decorations and meditation. I particularly love the ones from @lebeaubungalow & @ourcottagenest.
Or just decorate your home with evergreen branches like @graceoaksdesigns.
Finally, one of my favorite ways I have seen this is by using clear glass bottles, putting in a leafy branch like eucalyptus, rosemary, or fir tree and then filling with water and using it as a candle stick. These from from @liiv.blog are simple, beautiful, and there’s no sign of Scrooge anywhere!
5. Set The Table
One of the areas in your home that takes up a lot of space is your dining table. It’s prime real estate when it comes to decorating, but it also needs to remain functional.
An easy way to get this area in the holiday spirit is to set your dining table every day. In our home, we run the dishwasher every night (I’m not one of those minimalists that only has one plate per person) so each morning, you can set your table instead of putting the dishes away. This table scape from @dove_cottage is a beautifully festive set up.
Or, if that’s too high maintenance and you use your table several times a day like us, you can just keep a table runner and festive decor in the middle of the table and the place settings clear like this one from @southernsurroundings.
6. Keep Visual Clutter to a Minimum
My favorite way to keep visual clutter to a minimum (besides using one color palette) is to use simple wrapping paper. There are so many cute simple wrapping papers out there.
The simplest idea is to use brown craft paper or even paper grocery bags. Tie them with twine and use a label maker to finish them off like this one from @farmandflourish.
And if you want to be more sustainable, you can use fabric wrapping paper like this from @melissamaryjenkinsart.
7. Go for big impact with easy crafting
Finally, my favorite way to decorate for the holidays is to make crafts with the kids. My daughter and I made our decorations the year we were in Germany for Christmas using simple things like toilet paper rolls, egg cartons, paint, glue, and glitter.
It gave us something fun to do together and made our home festive. Plus, I didn’t feel bad recycling and tossing them at the end of the season.
For those of you who are sentimental, take a picture of your child with the decorations and keep that instead of the creations or keep your favorite one and toss the rest.
Here are some easy crafts you can make with your kids or by yourself:
Merry Christmas Lettering. This bunting from @themerrythought is so festive and impactful with very little effort.
TP Roll Crafts. There are so many ways to craft with toilet paper rolls. Make these cute Christmas figures like @abcdeelearning or make a village scene with “houses”. You can even craft them into ornaments. The possibilities are endless!
Kid-made wrapping paper. How adorable is this from @die_besten_ideen_fuer_kinder? Grand parents would love to get their gifts wrapped in this!
Magazine Trees. These are a great way to use up holiday catalogs that seem to creep in this time of year. I love these by @sewincupcakes.
How do you decorate your home for the holidays? I’d love to know!
Come on over and share in the Wannabe Minimalist Community on Facebook. The group is totally free and we’re having a lot of fun getting to know other like-minded people. Introduce yourself, share your thoughts, and let us know if there is something we can help you with.
I’m so excited to hear from you and help encourage you on your journey toward less stuff, more happiness, and an awesome life you and your family deserve.
