Decorating Your Apartment For The Holidays

It never truly feels like the holidays until you’ve decorated your home. With a house, you have plenty of places to display your favourite decorations. But what about a small apartment? 

So you’re limited on space. That doesn’t mean you need to be limited on holiday cheer! We’ve made a list of holiday decorating ideas that are perfect for a small apartment: 

Scope Out the Best Spots

It’s easy to get carried away when you’re decorating. But the bottom line is this: You don’t want your decorations to interfere with your daily living. You need to strike a balance between festive and functional. 

Look for spots where you have space for a new decoration, or for belongings you could store elsewhere during the holidays. 

Put Out Candles and Coloured Lights

It’s not just about the decorations you put out. It’s about the way you illuminate them. 

Lights can change the entire atmosphere of a room. Set up red and yellow lights, and your apartment will feel cozy, sleepy, and warm. With blue and white lights, it will feel bright and energetic. You can hang lights near your bed, couch, and/or TV stand. 

If you opt for candles instead, you get a bonus: They smell delightful. Scents have a powerful effect on your memory. By choosing scents you remember from holidays spent with your family, you can trigger vivid memories. Choose scents that fit the holiday season, such as cinnamon, peppermint, or sugar cookies.

Switch Out Pillows, Blankets, and Tablecloths

This one is easy to do and affordable. You can find new fabrics at the dollar store!

Take all the throw pillows and blankets you currently keep around the house, and shelve them for now. Replace them with more festive fabrics—gold, silver, evergreen, or red will do the trick. 

Make Space for the Small Things

When you’re short on space, you need to get creative. 

Try decorating with smaller things. Hunt around your home and you’re sure to find the perfect place for tiny decorations. These are items that can fit in nearly any nook or cranny. 

Like paper snowflakes, which you can make yourself and tape to the window. Or pine cones, which you can use to decorate any shelf or table. Buy festive mugs that spread the holiday spirit without taking up too much space, or hang a wreath on the back of a chair. 

Put Out Family Photos

Dig out your favourite pictures from family photo albums, and find festive frames for them. This will serve as a reminder of what the holiday season is really about: Spending time with your loved ones. 

Fake Plants

Not enough natural sunlight in your apartment to grow real plants? There’s no shame in trying fake ones. You can find leaves, twigs with berries, and small trees that bring warmth and colour into your home. Try hanging them from the ceiling, wrapping them around doorways, or placing them in front of windows.

Alternatives to a Holiday Tree

There’s nothing quite like the smell of an evergreen tree, one that fills your living room with its rich pine scent.

You might have grown up with one every year as a kid, but in an apartment, hauling a live tree into your suite just isn’t practical. It takes up too much valuable floor space!

That doesn’t mean you need to forgo the tradition altogether. Here are a few alternatives:

• Set up string lights on a smaller potted plant. If you have plants in your home, they can temporarily double as holiday decor. Small trees are just as festive as big ones! Purchase string lights and wrap them around the pot or on the leaves. If the plant is hardy enough, you could even hang a few ornaments on it. 
• Hang one on the wall. Don’t have enough floor space? What about the wall? You can find plenty of cool wall trees on Etsy and Pinterest. Get inspiration online, then try to make your own! To avoid damaging the walls, use adhesive strips that are safe to put over paint. 
• Buy a bouquet of winter flowers. It’s not a tree, but it’s the next best thing. Buy a festive vase, and fill it with flowers that remind you of the holidays. Make an arrangement of pine, berries, and white or red flowers. You’ll enjoy the same refreshing scent of a pine tree without the mess. You can place this in the centre of your dining table or kitchen island so it really pops.

Play Holiday Music

Music will instantly make your apartment feel festive, and you don’t need any more shelf space to pull it off. Set up a speaker and queue up a holiday playlist!

Spread Holiday Cheer This Season 

We hope these holiday decorating ideas help make your apartment feel like home this festive season. We wish you and your family happy holidays!Maybe you’ve decided it’s time for a new living space! At Globe, we have many affordable Winnipeg apartments for rent. Whether you’re looking for a more spacious place or one with better amenities, we’ll help you find what you need. Contact us today!