Simplify Holiday Decorating

Do you feel the Christmas spirit? See the twinkle lights? Smell the evergreen candles? It seems as if everyone has the Christmas decorating bug and Thanksgiving is still 6 days away. While I am A-Okay with others putting up the Christmas tree early November, we are strictly day-after-Thanksgiving people.

We make the trek to a tree farm every year to cut down our tree and it’s one of my favorite things. We spend the rest of the day and the next few days or week readying the house for Christmas.

I enjoy making our home feel cozy and Christmas-y for the season. The twinkle lights, the tree, and some touches of Christmas in every room make the holiday come alive. Because I like to spend as much time as possible in front of the tree, I want our home to reflect the season (twinkle lights), and yet not be cluttered (Christmas what-nots on every surface).

Our simplifying journey has slowly spilled over into Christmas and I want to share a few ways we arrived at ‘enough’ in our Christmas decorating. Enough looks a lot different for each family. It depends on what you enjoy, your bandwidth, and your space. These tips have worked for us, but will need to be tweaked for each individual family.

Tip #1: Have Boundaries

This is my biggest tip. Without boundaries, Christmas decorating can easily get out of control fast. I have two cupboards in the basement that house our Christmas decorations. If those get full, something has to go.

Another way to do this is have one or two storage bins where Christmas decorations live. If or when they get full, something has to go to make room.

If you’re purging Christmas decorations for the first time and have a LOT, I like the 1 in 10 out rule. If you bring something new in this year, 10 things must go out. Sometimes limitations are needed to help from buying more junk stuff.

Tip #2: Only decorate with what you love

I learned this one a few years back when I was pregnant and in the midst of a remodel. That year I had limited bandwidth and only put up the things I absolutely loved. It taught me so much about what decorations brought me joy and what made our home feel cozy and Christmas-y.

Christmas ornaments are one of the things I love and always bring about nostalgic feelings. Our ornament boxes are chalk full of beautiful pieces of our family’s history. I enjoy touching each one and remembering the Christmas’ of my childhood and telling my babes stories from when I was a little girl on December 25th.

Each one of our kids has a small designated box for their ornaments. I love seeing their faces as they open their ornament boxes. They each have a sense of pride and wonder as we go through the box and talk about who gave them a specific ornament and why. Decorating the tree is a special afternoon every year, largely because we are only putting out what we absolutely love.

Tip #3: It’s okay to donate the rest

It’s okay to let it go. Even if it was gifted. Even if you’ve had it forever. Even if it was handed down (gasp). Something that always helps me when I’m having a hard time letting go is this:

If I’m not using this thing, someone else could be.

Whenever I let go of something and either find someone else who can use it or donate it, I feel good knowing it will have a new life instead of sitting in a box for another year.

Tip #4: Decorate with consumables

Candles, fresh cut flowers, soap, and evergreen branches. Instead of having a bin loaded full of Christmas paraphernalia, I try and use things I don’t have to store year after year. Peppermint hand soap in the bathroom, a cinnamon scented candle, cranberries and a poinsettia plant from Trader Joes, some cut evergreens from the backyard…they all help make our home feel Christmas-y without having another red and green tote.

Tip #5: Let go of the pressure

Alexandra Kuykendall calls us the ‘orchestrators of Christmas’ in her book Loving My Actual Christmas. If you are the orchestrator, I want to give you permission to not go mad making your home magical for your babes. Sometimes the most magical moments (and best memories) come when we least expect it. The crookedly hung twinkle lights. The broken ornament. The ‘we trudged through mud and rain to pick out a Christmas tree’ story.

Sometimes when it seems the least magical in the moment, it will be the most magical in our memories.

We will all have an imperfect Christmas this year (sorry, just slinging truth). My hope is I will embrace the imperfect. I will roll with the punches and the crooked lights my seven year old puts up. I will keep my cool when my two year old falls in the mud in his new ‘Christmas’ pants on the way to pick out our tree. #thankyoujesusforoxiclean And I will smile and move on when a special ornament falls to the floor. Letting go of the pressure to orchestrate the ‘perfect’ Christmas is my hope for my family and yours this year.

Christmas decorating is just one of the ways we moms can ready our home and our hearts for the season. If you want to read more about my Christmas Plan check it out here. I think it’s valuable to be intentional and decide what is enough when it comes to decorations. Tell me, how do you simplify Christmas decorating?