Below is a list of very simple Christmas decoration ideas. The ideas are subcategorized according to the intended locations of the decorations. You can click the images to make them larger.
If you have any more ideas to add, please contact me!
Indoor living areas
- Fill a colorless glass bowl or sphere with Christmas lights.
- Decorate your indoor plants with Christmas lights. If you use battery-operated lights, you won’t have to worry about having a plug socket nearby. You could even hang small Christmas ornaments on your plants. Decorating plants you already have is ideal if you don’t have space for a traditional Christmas tree.
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Even though flowers are normally associated with spring and summer, you could decorate false flowers using Christmas light and baubles to make a more unusual centrepiece. The picture on the right was taken in a restaurant.
- Tie wide-ribboned bows around the pots of your plants.
- Put pieces of holly, preferably with berries, on the tops of the picture frames on your walls.
- Wrap a long tinsel garland around your stairway banister.
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If you have firewood stacked anywhere indoors, you could decorate the stack by placing decorations on protruding pieces of wood. You could also get decorations mounted on wires and insert the wires between the gaps between the pieces of wood. The photo on the right was taken in a restaurant. Here they used baubles and flowers.
- Drape tinsel over the tops of the picture frames on your walls. You could hang a light-weight bauble at either end.
- Make a paper chain garland by gluing strips of red and green paper to make connected rings. These chains can be hung on your Christmas tree or anywhere else in your house.
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Fill a large glass dish with water and add some floating candles. Remember that you should never leave lit candles unattended.
- If you want to create an old-fashioned display around your fireplace, consider hanging regular, long socks (preferably red or green) instead of the wider Christmas “stockings” that you find in Christmas decoration departments.
- If you have a fireplace, but don’t use it, place a roughly tangled set a Christmas lights where the logs or coal would normally be.
- Fill a decorative bowl with pinecones, acorns, and dried fruit, such as orange slices and clove-studded pomanders.
- Fill a glass bowl with baubles. This will make a lovely table centerpiece.
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Make a Christmas display on the top of your piano or mantelpiece. You can use anything you like, such as lights, (artificial) pine garland, baubles, Christmas cards, fake snow, model village buidlings, etc.
Christmas tree ornaments
- Make little “parcels” to hang on your tree by wrapping empty matchboxes (or any other small boxes you may have) with Christmas paper. Use ribbons or string to create a parcel effect and a loop for hanging. If your tree has a color scheme, choose paper and ribbons that will match your existing ornaments. If you have kids, you may want to fill the boxes with small gifts or candies before you wrap them. Just make sure there are no matches still inside the boxes! For fire safety reasons, make sure that the boxes don’t touch any Christmas lights.
- Hang Christmas cards you have received on your Christmas tree. Hang larger cards near the bottom and smaller cards near the top of your tree. Again, for fire safety reasons, make sure that the cards don’t touch any Christmas lights.
- Make small red and green yarn pom pom ornaments. You could mix in some silver or gold-colored yarn to add extra sparkle.
Windows and windowsills
- Make paper snowflakes and hang them in your windows (inside) using very thin string, wire, or cotton. Alternatively, stick them to the inside of your windows using white tack. You could also hang them on your Christmas tree
- Cut out star shapes from cardboard and cover them with aluminum foil (shiny side up). Like with the snowflakes, use them to decorate your windows or Christmas tree.
- Lay or hang Christmas lights along the windowsill of your front room. You and passers-by outside will enjoy their festive glow.
Doors
- Wrap Christmas lights around your Christmas wreath. Make sure that they are suitable for use outdoors if your wreath is outside. You could use battery-operated lights if wiring is a problem. The batteries shouldn’t get wet though, so only do this if the wreath is sheltered from the rain.
- Instead of hanging a wreath on your door, hang a bunch of holly, ivy, berries, and mistletoe, tied together with a red bow.
Garden
- Decorate a tree or bush in your front garden with Christmas lights. Make sure that they are suitable for use outdoors.
- Hang shatterproof baubles on a tree or bush in your garden. Shatterproof baubles are becoming increasingly popular for safety reasons. You could even hang bird food treats amongst the baubles as a Christmas gift to your garden birds.
NOTE: Lights and candles are both fire hazards. Never leave them unattended and always make sure that they are not near anything flammable!
I like your ideas. I will surely follow what you have mentioned.
Our christmas lights this 2010 will be made up from light emitting diodes, which do not generate so much heat 🙂
Well it is nearing for us to buy some christmas ornaments for the coming christmas 🙂