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When the holiday season rolls around, it’s time to bring out your best festive decorations from twinkling lights to gingerbread houses. The holidays also provide a unique opportunity to transform your living space for the current season and seasons to come. Rather than thinking of this time of year as the few months to add some warm and cozy decor to be removed come January or February, think of it as the time to reimagine your home’s set-up and upgrade your space. You’re already putting in the work to decorate, so why not level up your home at the same time?
Decorate for the Holidays
First and foremost, let’s talk about the best ways to bring the festivity of the holidays into your home. There are a couple of ways to go about doing this, depending on how much you want to decorate. Of course, you can go to the nearest holiday-themed store, load up on every possible decoration, and fill your home to the brim with holiday cheer. The perks of going hardcore for the holidays: your house may feel like living inside a snow globe afterward, and your friends will all want you to host Friendsgiving plus the annual holiday party.
However, going all out for the holidays isn’t everyone’s forté, despite still wanting to decorate for the season. Some more subtle ways to decorate include adding holiday-themed throw pillows or plushes to your couch or chairs, incorporating some natural winter greenery, and hanging up some outdoor fairy lights or Christmas wreaths.
Simply adding these three festive decorations will welcome more holiday spirit into your home. Moreover, focusing on locations like corners and doors for hanging decorations will help maximize their impact on your living space.
Embrace the Winter
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Embracing the holiday season with fun household ornaments is always fun, but removing your delightful decorations come January can add to the seasonal depression that accompanies wintertime. Instead, this year prioritize decorations that can stay up throughout the winter and aren’t just related to one specific holiday, like Christmas.
Of course, this isn’t to say you shouldn’t fill your house with Christmas decorations if that gets you into the holiday spirit—just to incorporate some decorations that stay relevant past the holidays so that you don’t have to take everything down after the new year.
Find decorations that align with the winter color palette—dark greens, whites, woodsy browns, and icy blues. White florals, birch logs, candles, pine cones, and white drapes, or bedding all bring the wintertime into your home while maintaining a snug, relaxed feel. Moreover, covering up any hardwood floors with artisan rugs will also add a layer of warmth and color to your living space.
Transform Your Space
Again, when decorating for the holidays, you’re already taking the time to think about your home and rearrange some of your furniture and decorations. This provides the perfect opportunity to make any other changes you’ve been thinking about as well. While this may seem like a much more time-intensive task than simply decorating, changing the right small aspects of your home can make a big impact on your living space.
For completely inexpensive home transformations, consider rearranging your furniture. For the holiday and winter season, it’s a nice touch to bring your seating areas closer together for gatherings. With the chillier temperatures, bringing couches and chairs away from the windows and in closer proximity to one another will make your home feel much cozier as well as encourage conversations among guests at any holiday parties.
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For those willing to spend some money on home improvement, consider buying some paint and refreshing a wall or room. Accent walls have surpassed being a trend, and they are here to stay. Think about your home’s current color scheme, pick a new color that will match it well, and select a wall to transform! For low cost and a day of effort, your home will feel revitalized. If you don’t want to deal with paint, there are other creative ways to upgrade a wall or corner in your home. Large-scale art, funky clocks, or new sconces are all great ways to create an accent wall and update your living room without paint.
Get Ready to Host
When preparing your home for the holidays, it’s also important to think about the increasing number of gatherings that come with the season. Whether you host guests every year or this will be your first, bringing in some unique elements to make your holiday party memorable will have you hosting like a pro. Some of the most overlooked aspects of holiday decorating are the available dishware and seating. Make sure you count your dishes and chairs to ensure you’ll have enough for everyone. If not, consider this a fun opportunity to buy some holiday- or winter-themed plates.
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Moreover, it’s good to think about what type of dinner you’d like to provide your eager guests with. Does your kitchen have the necessary appliances needed to serve the number of people you’ll be hosting? What are you comfortable preparing in large amounts? Oftentimes for larger gatherings, grilling is a popular choice for several reasons. An outdoor grill keeps extra heat away from the warm interior filled with more bodies than usual, and your oven will be free to use for sides and desserts. Also, grilling often takes less time to produce a larger amount of food. If you don’t already have a girl, consider portable BBQ grills as a solution to your holiday meals.
‘Tis the Season
Overall, the upcoming holidays provide a great opportunity to refresh your living space. With wintertime cold keeping everyone inside more often, prioritizing your home decor goes a long way to staying positive despite the shorter days. So, rearrange some furniture, find some green and white florals, and add some festive decor to make your home bright and cozy this year!