How to Decorate for the Holiday When You Don’t Want To
Some people have hung their holiday lights in the wake of this fall’s first breeze, desperate to begin to soak up the joy the season brings them. For others, the thought of turning a home into a red and green winter wonderland – or even hanging one piece of jewelry – may seem overwhelming right now.
There are many reasons why a person may not have enough mental or physical energy to have a full Christmas, even in a “normal” year. But due to the depth of grief, isolation and fatigue that this particular year has brought, you might want to skip the season entirely.
I personally haven’t dressed up for the holidays since I became a mom seven years ago because I was overwhelmed. Too busy, too excited, too anything that is incompatible with the holiday. However, this year I decided to return to my home for the holidays so that the kids don’t start wondering why we never have one of those “Christmas trees” or “stockings” they hear about.
If you, too, want the holidays to infiltrate your home, here are some tips for creating low-key holiday decorations that are family-friendly, will cheer up your home (even during a pandemic) and won’t take up a lot of time. time or money.
Is starting to smell like Christmas!
To get started, collect a bouquet of garni, simmer on the stove with orange zest and … just kidding!
Fill your basket with these cinnamon-scented pine cones or evergreen scraps and your nose will know it’s the holidays every time you walk through the door. In addition, candle and electric air freshener manufacturers have stocked your local Target with pumpkin spices, matte pine, cinnamon apples, gingerbread, and peppermint schnapps-flavored products. You can enjoy the sensual pleasures of the holiday “flavor story” without ever baking apple pies.
Concentrate your efforts
Don’t try to decorate the whole house if it’s not your speed. Choose one place or one thing that you and your children will see and enjoy every day – a front door, a cape, a dining table, or a cozy reading area. You are the ruler of a resort property, but your kingdom doesn’t have to be huge.
Maybe this year you’ll just be running a sofa with a couple of Christmas pillows and a blanket. A wreath on your front door will give your postman and neighbors the impression that you went out of your way. The antlers on your minivan will make your kids (and all the kids you pass by) laugh merrily! Your pride will have plenty of time to recover in the new year.
Keep the tree low-key
People who live in magazines decorate their 12-foot Douglas fir trees with hand-blown partridges and turtle doves. People who live in magazines don’t appear to have babies or kittens. Some of us cannot afford to decorate a giant Christmas tree. Forget Rockefeller Center and think about the little things.
Christmas trees can be like altars for decades of family memories, with jagged decorations made by preschoolers and Santa Clauses, cross-stitched by grandmothers. They can be monochrome, minimalistic, or themed . Whatever your style, wood can be simple and small.
The tiny trees are very cute and fit on the bedside table. Felt trees hang on the wall , and children can break and repair them several times a day. A bare branch in a pot exudes a soothing Charlie Brown vibe. I plan to collect all the stacks of books in our living room and fold them into an indefinitely triangular shape. TA-dah!
Let there be light!
For a child, flickering lights are fairies, magic, dreams. They are visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. Remove all the unnecessary and depict a festive scene at night. Squint your inner eye to blur the details. What’s left other than our tiny modern glow-in-the-dark electric candles?
If you can only imagine Christmas lights on a tree, let’s open our minds now. This year, I hang lights around the perimeter of our living room, so when we dim the overhead lights at night, we find ourselves in a festive glowing cave. Adding Christmas magic with lights is easy and effective.
Let your friends and family decorate for you
I don’t mean letting everyone come and dig around your house, potentially swapping dangerous germs. No, just take advantage of all the hopes, peace and good wishes in the holiday cards that everyone sends you. Give the children a roll of washi ribbon to create a festive mural from all of these cards.
Maybe this year you didn’t have time to send out your postcards. If the flood of postcards makes you feel guilty about not putting in the perfect family photo in June and sending it to every person you’ve ever met, let the kids cut them up and make a collage. (Just pin the return addresses and glue them in an envelope at the back of the trash bin in case you really feel inspired to send out postcards in a year from now. Because, ultimately, the holidays should be motivated by inspiration, not commitment.)
Finally, the least you can do
(If holiday music makes you want to break your own eardrums, skip the next paragraph.)
Stream holiday music around the house. There is so much Christmas music that you can create a different mood for every day in December: classic, country, metal, hip-hop, Bublé, Bieber, Bing, Mariah, Sinatra, Muppets – Spotify has at least a trillion Christmas playlists alone. I will listen to A Very Special Christmas because Gen X is my whole life. Your favorite holiday movies can also be an enjoyable soundtrack throughout the season.
Boil all the holiday flair down to its essentials and pick one or two things that will have the greatest impact on you and your family. When you’ve finished laying the halls, you should look around your work and say, “Oh, this is fun!” not “Damn, I’m glad it’s done.”
This article was originally published in 2019 and was updated on December 2, 2020 to reflect current information and context.