Christmas can be a fantastically festive time, but those of us in smaller homes and apartments often don’t have the necessary space to store large trees and freestanding decorations they’d like to. Furnishing your home ready for December 25th and throughout the month of advent doesn’t need to take up lots of rooms; instead, work with what you’ve got and hang decorations on your walls!
First, you need to be sure that you have the right hardware to hang what you need to. While lighter and more temporary decorations may be easily adhered with sticky tack or a tiny piece of tape, you can also purchase picture rail hanging systems, wall-mounted non-drill hooks and other innovative products that are suitable for use in rented properties and on weaker walls.
So now you’re all set and ready to get creative for Christmas, how best to make your walls seasonal and exciting? Read on for all of our alternate Christmas decoration ideas…
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Wall mount a Christmas tree… ish
A traditional freestanding Christmas tree takes up lots of floor or table space that we simply don’t all have in the first place. Instead, alternate tree ideas include cutting an (artificial) tree in half and wall-mounting it or hanging a life-size painting of a Christmas tree. If you’ve got kids, why not create a blank green Christmas-tree-shaped decoration and sticking it to the wall before handing them baubles made of fuzzy felt – they can decorate their ‘tree’ however they like!
Stay traditional with tinsel
Tinsel, a decoration originally conceived to mimic the look of shimmery silver ice shards, can now be purchased in a variety of colours and finishes and takes up little space. Hang tinsel from your existing paintings and prints on the walls, thread it through bannisters and stick it along furniture to jazz everything up in a way that only the most basic and garish of festive décor can.
Hang fairy lights
Ambient lighting can be a feature of any home year-round but plain white or coloured fairy lights strategically hung to illuminate existing features gives a festive feel. Fairy lights are now widely available across high street stores and online and come in a whole host of different shapes – think glittering snowmen and brightly wrapped presents.
Peg up your Christmas cards
The sending and receiving of Christmas cards remains a popular tradition for many, but they are all too often stood up along a mantelpiece for a few days before being dutifully recycled in the period between the 25th and New Year’s Eve.
Instead, hanging wide strips of ribbon (plain, glittery, printed with a Christmas design or whatever finish you prefer) vertically or horizontally along or across walls allows for you to display them all. You can use either humble paperclips or tiny pegs to hang them from the threads, and in displaying the assortment of festive imagery you’ll instil a seasonal feel to the whole room… and it won’t hit your wallet too hard!
Departing from the Christmas traditions of big green tree, metallic baubles and oranges stuffed with cloves needn’t mean that your home feels any less festive. Instead, utilising your given space creatively and cleverly makes your December decorations unique and allows for them to be tailored to best suit you and your family. Why stick to the same old décor year in year out? Mix it up, think outside the box and enjoy the season, no matter what it looks like.