Queue the holiday music! Get those carrot noses ready and warm up that cocoa because winter is upon us. I gave fall and Thanksgiving plenty of time for their own celebrations but now? I am ready for sparkling lights, presents, and the holiday joy. Outside we already have several layers of snow and I get the feeling even more so to create a cozy haven inside for me and my family.
For me that means decorations for Winter and Christmas. I’m not someone who goes over the top, but I do have more bins for this season than any other.
So how do I Decorate for Christmas/Winter as an Aspiring Minimalist, Homemaker, and Homesteader?
By cleaning my whole home of course. Okay it’s really just a general pickup of the house but I like every surface to have been cleaned before the decorating commences. I’ll sum up my cleaning routine really fast for those who are curious. Start with picking up and packing the last season’s decor. There is no use in working around all of the items that you will be putting away anyways. Next, I wipe down and declutter all of my flat surfaces (counters, tables, nightstands, and coffee tables). Lastly, I clean all my floors. Pretty simple but it makes all the difference. It’s really nice to have a clean well decorated home. Now onto how I decorate.
Start With Last Year’s Decor
The oldies are the goodies! I always go to what I have first because I saved all that decor for a reason! You can see from my photo below I put all my decor on my dining room table (apart from the Christmas tree ornaments). It is easier to access what you have when you have it laid out. This year just like when I decorated for Fall it is the first time, I am decorating this apartment for Winter.
So, I look where I would like my centerpieces. For winter that would be my Christmas tree, garland, and nutcrackers. Okay the Nutcrackers aren’t mine but they are Matt’s special collection that he enjoys seeing every year, so I try to make sure they’re a centerpiece for him. It helps that I do love them too. After my centerpieces I place the smaller decor about the house in areas that won’t cause a crowded look. Especially for a huge holiday such as Christmas it is easy to over decorate and fill your home with large amounts of decor. Remember for homemaking we want to create a calm loving environment of rest for our family and friends. The way I do that is by limiting decor to the stuff I love and blends into one another.
I stick to the classic traditional look for Christmas. Using only white lights and natural colors for decorations the home isn’t oversaturated and busy for an entire season. Of course, use the decor you love and that enriches your home. I encourage you to donate or rehome the decor you no longer wish to have.
Things I avoid
Like I mentioned above is overcrowding. Less is more for any kind of decorating. Watch out for placing things on shelves just to find a place for them or on other flat surfaces. Another one is placing things on the ground. This I avoid for many reasons. My main reason is things near the ground will get dirty and broken easily. I don’t have children, but I do have two dogs and I fight constantly with mud and shedding throughout the year. So, I want to avoid having extra to clean and move around while I clean.
Also, I avoid buying items because they’re on sale and “just because”. Each piece of decor I go out to get has thought and purpose behind it. Do I have a place to put it? Does it match my other decor? Why do I want this? If you go through these questions and don’t have an answer for any of them then maybe pass up the decor unless you absolutely cannot picture next Christmas without it.
Keeping things, you don’t love, or use is another big thing that I try to avoid. It is true in a smaller home I did not use all of my decor. In this case most of the items are things I love and heirlooms so there is not a need to rehome them since I absolutely will use them once I have the space. When I start to let go of items is when they aren’t matching the decor I own, and I don’t really care for them anymore.
Creating ambience
I talked about the atmosphere, theme, and the likeness of my decor. But how do those come together to create a Christmas ambience that you will love? When I talk about creating ambience, I’ll talk about my own personal idea of the atmosphere I want for Christmas first as an example.
Try to think about what Christmas means to you and what you visualize when you think of it. For me I think of a cozy warm elegance that has a calming beauty. To create that feeling in the home I chose a theme that helps support my atmosphere. That theme for me has cool and warm colors (gold, purple, and dark green) as well as what I consider to be original decor (nutcrackers, glass ornaments, ribbons and lights). Of course, I add a modern element to the mix because I like it. And some red because red and green is so very Christmas. By choosing colors and a theme (like farmhouse, modern, scandinavian, etc.) that supports your atmosphere you should have a likeness to your decor.
Another tip is to bring your five senses into the mix. We probably have sight and touch handled with the decor and lights filling your home. I keep a fireplace on my tv or symphony music so there is hearing. Last to bring into your home is smell and taste. Cookies and candy are a very traditional way to have smell and taste in your home. While I do make cookies every year, I like my home to smell yummy without baking daily. That’s where I turn to a wax melts. With no open flame like candles, I use wax melts the majority of the time. (Yes I still love and use candles! But pets…)
For the majority of December, I have Perfectly Pine from ScentSationals going in my wax melter because it’s a lovely realistic smell to fill my home with. Most of my melts are from the brand ScentSationals since they’re reasonably priced and they have so many kinds of melts for your home. I may or may not have bought at least 5 scents from their Thanksgiving Collection and I have just as many for each season if that tells you the assortment they have. Here is a link to their website where you can order a wax warmer and their cubes (I am not sponsored btw).
I hope this helped you decorate your home for Christmas and that you have a great holiday season! Let me know what kind of theme you love to see in your home down below. Also, if you liked this post you can subscribe to my newsletter where I send out the best posts of the blog monthly. Thank you for visiting The Self Sufficient Citizen and until next time.
-Hannah
