Do you remember the days of gaudy holiday decorations and gigantic blow up santas perched by the front doors of their homes? For the most part, those holidays are a part of Christmas past, but if you venture far enough into your suburban neighborhood this holiday season, you’ll be able to spot a few of them. Luckily, with minimalism being the main design trend over the last few years, holiday decorations are much more tasteful and understated now. Looking for a bit of inspiration for your own minimalistic holiday decorations?
Door decor
A wreath or something similar on your door is a great way to welcome guests into your home and show off your festivity. Keep it simple with a lush green wreath, or a simplistic wooden pumpkin. A simple wooden standing sign by your door is another great way to decorate, and of course, pumpkins or homemade luminaries are perfect to light your walkway this holiday season. You can also put a wreath on your garage door, and string holiday lights above it.
Select simple Christmas ornaments
When buying Christmas ornaments, it’s easy to go overboard and get a smorgasbord of ornaments that don’t go together and overcrowd your tree. When you go to buy ornaments, it’s best to have a specific theme in mind, as well as the overall size of your tree. If you buy too many, just set the extra aside and save them for another year or gift them to a friend. A simple string of lights and colored balls are a perfect way to decorate your tree in a minimal way.
Add subtle touches throughout your entire home
Being minimal doesn’t mean that you can’t be festive. Having subtle and understated touches of the holidays throughout your entire home will be beautiful without throwing your excitement over the holiday season right in the face of each of your guests. Green garlands and small, twinkly lights strung across mantles and countertops are one minimalist way to decorate for the holidays.
Tree alternatives
Growing up, many of our homes and the homes of our friends had small Christmas trees in every room of the house. I have the perfect minimalist way to replace these trees. Place a large glass vase(or milk bottle) with a tree branch in it, stripped of leaves. A birch branch would be beautiful for this! Tie a few christmas ornaments off of this branch with twine. Festive, but minimalist.
Wall trees
Want another tree alternative? The trend of wall trees isn’t going anywhere, and I’m not complaining. The idea behind wall trees is that you utilize the space on your wall instead of bringing a large tree into your home. You can do this a few different ways. Here are a few of my favorite wall tree ideas that I’ve seen:
-String lights along the wall in a triangular shape, with a zigzag pattern to mimic a tree.
-Find some evergreen branches, and pin them onto your wall in a tree pattern. Add a few ornaments, if you feel like it needs a little something extra.
-Make small pine trees out of brown paper, and attach them onto the wall in, you guessed it, a tree design.
Where to hang your stockings
Don’t have a fireplace or mantel to hang your stockings on this year? Go find another tree branch(this one should be rather large/long), and hang it up flat against your wall. Attach your stockings onto this branch instead of a mantle! You can attach a few pine sprigs to the branch, if you feel like it looks a little bare.
Advent tray
The traditional advent bowl/wreath can be easily replaced by a handmade advent tray instead. All you’ll need is a simple, shallow tray, a bit of greenery(pinecones are a great addition to this), and four white candles to go in the center of the tray. Place this on your dining table for an inexpensive festive centerpiece.
Mason jars for everything
Want another centerpiece idea? Grab a few mason jars, and tie a bit of thin twine around the tops of each of them. Place a candle in one, fill another with pinecones, and a few loose, small tree branches in another. The great thing about this is that you probably have everything you need laying in your yard.