20 tips to make decorating your home for the holidays a little bit easier

Your home at the holidays doesn’t have to be immaculately decorated. It’s not going to be photographed for a magazine. Instead of spending a fortune on new decorations each year, use what you already have. 

Not every inch of your home needs to be the height of festivity. Select a few areas that you want to decorate. It makes the entire process much simpler, especially if you’re decorating for successive holidays. 

If you want to go even simpler, keep whatever holiday you’re decorating for contained to one room. Use your living room for Christmas. Only decorate your stoop for Halloween. It streamlines everything. 

If you like to have decorations up throughout all of the -ber months and into the new year but don’t want to swap things out every month, use seasonal items instead of those that are holiday-specific. Use regular pumpkins over jack o'lanterns. Opt for snowflakes instead of stockings.

Decorate your home for the holidays with items you’ll actually use. For example, instead of swapping out throw pillows, get a festive throw blanket to snuggle up with. 

If you do intend to buy new holiday decorations this year, or if you’re not sure which of your existing decorations you want to use, select a theme. For Halloween, it might be candy corn. For Christmas, it could be angels. Having a theme will make choosing decorations easier. 

If you’d rather not have a theme, use a color scheme. This allows you to use elements of different themes and instead select decorations based on color. And it ensures a cohesive look throughout your home. 

You can rearrange your furniture if you want to, but don’t feel obligated to. Decorate around your current layout. If this means getting a smaller Christmas tree, get a smaller Christmas tree. 

An easy way to decide where and how to decorate is by swapping out your usual decorations for holiday items. Where you have coffee table books, put a pumpkin. Got a vase of beads? Swap them out for cranberries. 

Greenery is a simple and elegant way to decorate for the holidays. You can keep all of your normal decorations up and add greenery around them. It’s easy and beautiful. 

Adding lights is another easy way to add festivity to your home without completely overhauling for the holidays. Add twinkle lights in strategic places. You’ll love the glow it provides when the sun goes down. 

Natural items work great as decor, and they can be used throughout the entire holiday season. Ivy, pinecones, holly, berries, and more all add a bit of festivity without going overboard. 

There’s no reason you have to decorate according to tradition. If it’s easier for you to use a nontraditional Christmas tree, use it. If it’s easier for you to put up pictures of pumpkins rather than actual pumpkins, do so.

If you’d rather, use items that are festive colored rather than holiday-specific. For example, instead of putting stockings that you have to buy on your mantle, put up red and green candles that you already own. 

Thrift stores are often teeming with old holiday decorations. If you’re decorating on a budget or want a fun item that no one else has, go thrifting for your festive items. 

It can be overwhelming to decorate for the holidays, especially if you don’t already have a stockpile of items. Your older relatives likely do have a collection of holiday decorations, so ask to borrow some from them to save money and avoid shopping. 

Some holiday decorations you might only use for one season, but be sure to save special ones to reuse. It might not help you immediately, but saving special decorations will help in the long run. 

If you want to leave all of your regular decorations up while also being festive, add accent pieces. Adding accent pieces here and there as accent pieces will add holiday charm without making decorating a giant chore. 

If you have lots of one type of decorative item, don’t be afraid to use it in a unique way. For example, if you have more tree ornaments than branches, put some of them in a decorative bowl. 

To make things ultra simple, only use one holiday item as decoration. Make it your focal point. Get a giant skeleton for Halloween. Dress a cornucopia for Thanksgiving. Put up a single tree for Christmas.