Decorating Your Home for Christmas When You DON’T Live in a Mansion

One of my favorite holiday events here in Huntsville is the Spirit of Christmas Past Homes Tour. We have a lot of gorgeous antebellum homes in town, and many of them open their doors to give lookey-loos like me a peek inside. I’m always so impressed with their 20-foot trees, coordinated garlands, and hand-carved nativity scenes, but let’s get real. As amazingly gorgeous as those decorations (and most of the ones you see on Pinterest) are, they just straight-up don’t work for a 700 sq. ft. apartment. Today, I thought I’d share what works for me in my humble Christmas apartment.

Outdoors

I keep it simple- just a festive wreath! I got this plain wreath at Michael’s and then added little touches that I picked out myself. Can we talk about what a great invention over-the-door wreath hangers are? On my patio, I wrapped garlands and white lights around my railings and plugged it into my timer. I’m lazy, so light timers are a blessing!

Kitchen

My kitchen is tiny. I mean TINY. I can’t have the dishwasher and the fridge open at the same time. So I don’t really have the space to add a bunch of unnecessary decorations. I just added a few festive pot holders and dish towels, plus this adorable wine bottle sweater.

Bedroom

I spent a long time thinking about my bedroom decoration. I wanted something wintery that could easily be shifted to Christmassy so I could stretch out my bedding longer than just one month. Eventually I went with this lumberjack flannel sheet set and this navy comforter, topped with my usual big white pillows. I also picked up a few fun throw pillows, like this Merry and Bright one and this gold star one. I didn’t want to go overboard, because I don’t have the space to store a bunch of seasonal pillows. Above the bed, I hung this pre-lit garland from Bed Bath and Beyond. I feel like I’m waiting on Santa every time I go to bed!

Living Room

I inherited my grandparent’s artificial tree from the ’80s and I loved it, but since last Christmas, I added a dressing table to the spot the tree usually lives in. My beautiful baby wasn’t going to fit! I finally bit the bullet and bought a slim artificial tree from At Home. Growing up, we always did white lights outside and colored lights in, and I love colorful, sentimental trees. It’s another family tradition to get an ornament every place we travel, which is something I’ve started to do and love.

My apartment has a fireplace, but it didn’t come with a mantle. My dad actually put one up for me, and I’ve decorated it with lights, garland, and a few of my favorite Christmas characters. I have Kringle the Jingle Giraffe and a very festive Nutcracker, as well as this super cute banner from the dollar spot in Target!

How do you decorate your place?