Two Tricks To Simplify Christmas Decorating

Holiday

Dec. 2

Two Tricks To Simplify Christmas Decorating

It's easy to get into the holiday spirit when you hear Christmas music and see lights all around you. But finding the time and the energy to decorate our homes may not be quite as easy.

We often feel overwhelmed at the thought of all of the decorating we'd like to do, or think we should do.

I’d like to suggest you think about simplifying your holiday decorating this year so it takes less time, costs much less, and keeps clutter and chaos at bay. Plus there’s less clean up after the holidays are over!

HERE ARE TWO TRICKS TO SIMPLIFYING FOR THE HOLIDAYS:

1. Choose ONLY 1 or 2 main surfaces or areas of your home to decorate, and leave it at that.

It might be just your tree, or forgo a big tree and just decorate with a few things on your coffee table and dining table. Or perhaps only your fireplace mantel. Taking the pressure off and not having to decorate every inch of your home will save you a lot of time and stress.

2. Go natural.

It’s just simpler to decorate with natural materials than to go buy or dig out all kinds of store-bought fussy things. Look for pinecones, greenery, twigs with berries, nuts, cinnamon sticks and bowls of fruit. That’s all you need to add a festive touch. Less really is more!

The easiest way to decorate for holidays

This year I've decorated my entryway simply with a mini tree in a vintage lunch pail, a handmade stick wreath, and a cozy plaid blanket. Simple and natural, and gives an inviting festive feel right at the front door.

The stick wreath was easy- simply use a hot glue gun to adhere sticks found in your yard or at the beach or along a river to a cardboard circle cut-out. I hung it with a picture wire on the back.

I use a tiny fir tree in a maple sap bucket as my tree and forgo a big one. This way it takes only a string of lights and a few cutout birch branch ornaments to decorate.

Below, I styled my Mom's fireplace mantel with DIY moss trees, a couple of wreaths and some cedar in a vintage pitcher.

The moss trees are easy - just wrap moss (I used the real thing but you can buy it in stores too) around sturdy paper taped into cone shapes. I used a hot glue gun to keep the moss on and then also wrapped them with jute rope.