Updated October 30, 2023
Wreaths and Christmas lights are great, but what are some other ideas for Christmas décor?
Creating beautiful, unique Christmas decorations for your home isn’t hard. Here, interior designer Lisa Moody shares her top 5 tips for decorating your home this holiday season.
(And we’re throwing in a few extra holiday décor ideas for inspiration).
WATCH ON YOUTUBE – 4:17
Pretty much everyone who celebrates Christmas has a tree. But not everyone knows how to decorate a Christmas tree for maximum effect.
Big ornaments can be tough to integrate into your tree, because they tend to draw a lot of attention to themselves and away from other ornaments.
Balance and depth are what you want from your Christmas tree decorations.
So, when you’re placing your largest ornaments, try to find open spaces on the tree where the branches are thinner, or the lights are more spaced out.
Set your large ornaments into these open spaces and tuck them deeper inside the tree. That helps them not stick out so starkly and creates a layered effect.
On the other end of the scale are tiny Christmas ornaments—the ones that seem to disappear once you’ve hung them on the tree.
What’s the solution?
Group your small ornaments together to create the illusion of a much larger ornament. You can even go so far as to wire a few tiny ornaments together.
There’s no reason to limit yourself to traditional Christmas tree ornaments.
You can decorate your tree with pretty much anything if your tree is strong enough to support it. If it looks good, try it!
For example, a cut a white feather boa into sections and use it to create a fake snow effect:
The most popular Christmas tree toppers are stars and angels.
But you can put anything you like at the top of your tree: a snowflake, a ribbon, a big red poinsettia… if it fits on top and looks good, go ahead and use it.
Creating a beautiful garland for your mantel (or anywhere you can fit a garland) isn’t hard.
Start with an easy-to-find artificial garland. All you need to do to elevate it is to add a few touches of personal style and you’ll have an unbelievably Christmas-y bit of décor.
To start with, use a baking sheet with floral foam or Styrofoam to create a platform. On this platform, place some of your other mantel decorations.
Creating asymmetry and elevation is the key to a beautiful mantel.
If you’ve got extra lights or ornaments that didn’t fit on your Christmas tree, use them to add a little extra sparkle to your garland.
If your kids (or you!) built gingerbread houses this holiday season, why not use them as part of your Christmas décor?
If you can find a large enough jar to fit your gingerbread house inside, you’ve got all the makings of a perfect decoration.
Of course, you can also find the jar first and build a gingerbread house to fit. Creating gingerbread homes is fun (and delicious).
Advent calendars can be more than an excuse to eat chocolate every day; they can also be part of your Christmas décor!
You can use all kinds of things to make an advent calendar: mason jars, tiny gift bags, envelopes… if you can find 24 of it and it can hold a small item, it can be an advent calendar.
Lisa’s favourite Christmas decoration is this advent calendar she made with nothing more than some children’s socks, clothespins, and a length of twine:
You can fill your homemade advent calendar with anything you (or your kids) like. Try small toys, cookies, or candy… you can use up your leftover Halloween candy if you’ve got any.
Unless you’re in the habit of buying all your Christmas gifts on December 24, you can treat your wrapped gifts as décor items (until they get torn into on Christmas morning).
When you buy your wrapping supplies, think about what will look good with your existing décor.
You don’t need to stick to traditional wrapping paper and ribbon, either. You can wrap your gifts in colourful craft paper and use beautiful cloth ribbons.
Or find wrapping paper you like and cut it into strips to use as ribbon over solid colour wrapping paper:
The best part of using your gifts as décor items?
Motivation to get your Christmas shopping done early.
After you’re done tearing into your Christmas gifts, think about how much they’re worth. Is the contents coverage limit on your home insurance still high enough to cover everything?
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Merry Christmas!
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Need a little more holiday inspiration? We’ve collected these holiday décor ideas just for you:
Christmas trees don’t have to be green. Why not try an all-white Christmas tree this year?
Or go for big contrast with a white Christmas tree and bright ornaments in all the colours of the rainbow:
Or, if you want a really unique Christmas tree idea, use nothing but the brightest, boldest colours:
If you want a unique Christmas tree that still looks at least somewhat traditional, incorporate some inspiration from one of the most famous holiday treats—candy canes!
Flip the usual Christmas tree colour scheme around: a white tree with green ornaments:
Fruit may not be the first thing you think of when it comes to Christmas, but dried oranges make for a unique and beautiful garland:
In the same vein, you can use bright red apples in place of the usual Christmas ornaments:
Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what to do with holiday cards. Why not incorporate them into your holiday garland?
Try making a garland out of pinecones:
Flowers add colour and variety to your garland (even if they’re not strictly Christmas flowers).
Have you collected so many Christmas ornaments over the years that they don’t all fit on the tree? You can take spare ornaments and repurpose them into all sorts of unique holiday displays. Here are a few ideas:
For starters, who says you have to have just one Christmas tree? Pop a few ornaments on a smaller tree (or any of your houseplants that can handle them):
Or, save a few of your largest Christmas ornaments and hang them in the window:
Wreaths are an iconic piece of holiday décor, and you can find one to suit any style. Or make your own wreath!
Use a few extra ornaments as part of your holiday table display:
What about displaying your Christmas cards? You can make a Christmas card tree and finish it off with a few extra ornaments as well.
You can make your own advent calendar out of just about anything. For starters, how about using Christmas crackers (or fashioning your own)?
It sounds odd, but it works: You can make an advent calendar using toilet paper rolls to hold the goods.
For the tea lover in your home, how about an advent calendar with one new tea each day?
If you’ve got some sewing skills, you can make a custom advent calendar out of felt, in whatever design your kids would like:
Or, make your advent calendar out of little more than paper cups and rubber bands:
There’s nothing wrong with wrapping gifts in traditional, store-bought wrapping paper. After all, it’s available in any colour or pattern you need.
But if you’re including your Christmas gifts as part of your holiday décor, why not try something unique with the wrapping?
Like this wrapping made from recycled knit sweaters:
Or try another sustainable way of wrapping gifts in fabric: furoshiki, a Japanese gift-wrapping method:
You can use simple brown paper dressed up with lace:
It takes some planning ahead, but if you save bits and pieces of wrapping from packages and other gifts throughout the year, you can reuse them for Christmas—just add some ribbons or twine to spruce it up.
Another gift wrapping idea that’s easy to try: tuck little embellishments like bells or evergreen twigs under your ribbons:
Want to learn more? Visit our Interior Design resource centre for inspiration and tips to help you create the perfect living space. Or, get an online quote in under 5 minutes and find out how affordable personalized home insurance can be.
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