Minimalist Christmas Decor

4 Things to Help Keep Christmas Decor Easy for You

Over this last weekend, our family decorated for Christmas, and Christmas decorating in the past was a stressor for me.

I was overwhelmed with the idea of getting it all out.

Although that wasn’t as bad, it was much more enjoyable than the idea of putting it away again.

The entire process was overwhelming for me, and then adding extra stuff to the house was as well.

But after embracing minimalism, that’s changed.

These days decorating the house for Christmas takes about half an hour, same with putting it away again. It takes so little time. It’s not an overwhelming task. And the kids can participate, making it go really fast.

So I thought I’d share with you four things that I keep in mind as I decorate for Christmas.

This makes my life so much simpler.

1. Don’t shop for decor

I know there are people that shop for decorations because I see the decorations for sale. And then if you go to Target after the holidays, the decorations are gone.

People have gone through and bought all kinds of things.

And I completely understand how tempting that is because they’re beautiful.

They draw me in, I love them. They just look so cute! And every year they come out with new colors and new themes, and they’re beautiful…

But my goal in embracing minimalism is to make my life easier, to make my home so that it serves me. It helps me.

And if I fall into that trap of going out and buying more stuff, it takes away that peace and that control that I have over the home.

And more stuff means the house would slide back into that state of overwhelm.

So for me, I just don’t go to that section of the store. I don’t even look.

I have the things that I like. I have the family pieces, the sentimental items, the things that my kids have made me, and I’m satisfied with how our home is, how it’s decorated.

I don’t need more. And even though I can be drawn to those things, they’re very appealing, I can understand that I don’t need more, what I have is completely enough.

So, it’s just best if I don’t even look.

2. Keep only the favorites

We all have our favorite pieces; candle holders that came from grandma’s house, or the nativity scene that we grew up with.

Whatever it is, we have the things that are really special to us and they make us feel like, “Yes, this is Christmas. This has good memories attached to it.”

Those are the things that we can keep.

We all have various reasons for celebrating. And so consider that as you think about what things you want to keep.

Do you want the focus on advent, the coming of Christ, what he did for us, coming down to the earth to live among men, and how he made this way so that we can be reconciled to Him?

Or do you prefer to have your focus more family-centered, with sentimental items considering loved ones and memories that you’ve had through the years?

Keep just the favorites, the very special things, and let go of the meaningless decorations.

Because this season is not about how our house looks or how we decorate. It’s so much more than that.

3. Clean & tidy all the way

A clean and tidy home gives so much more cheer than the decorations.

It’s not the decorations in our house that make us feel good.

Of course, we can have things that we love and enjoy looking at that bring us good memories, but if you want that sense of calm and peace through the holidays, then just keep up on the regular day-to-day stuff.

Do the dishes every day, clear the counters every day, keep things off of your surfaces.

That’s what’s going to help you relax and enjoy the season, not the perfect centerpiece.

4. Less is more

Think of that saying, “You can’t see the forest for the trees.”

This applies to decorations too.

We can’t enjoy the house for all the decorations.

Now, if you’re someone that absolutely loves Christmas decor and you want every surface covered, that’s what really lights you up, then absolutely, do that.

But if you’re overwhelmed, you’re stressed out, and the whole idea of the holidays, the decorating, the traditions, the celebrations, everything… gives you just a knot in your stomach, let’s work on eliminating the things that aren’t helping you, that aren’t benefiting you, that aren’t serving you and your family.

This includes all the decorations, what you put on the Christmas tree, the gift requirements you have, the different obligations that you feel.

For our family, traditions are very important.

And through the month of December, those are the things that I focus on.

We go to the mountains, we pick out a tree, we cut out paper snowflakes to decorate the tree. We make gingerbread houses together. Those things take time and they’re labor-intensive, but there are a lot of things that I let go of.

I let go of

• The expectation to be in a Christmas cantata.
• The expectation to go Christmas caroling.
• Host Christmas parties.
• Send our Christmas cards.
• To attend 4 different Christmas gatherings.
• And all the other things that I felt like I had to do.

So I stepped back from all those other obligations and I fully embraced the ones for our family that our family values.

Over the years, we’ve reduced so many decorations that it’s down to two smaller boxes and it takes us about 30 minutes to decorate.

Gone are the days of setting aside a full Saturday to get everything done.

These days, I make sure the house is clean, we set out the decorations together as a family.

And the boxes that store those decorations get put right back into the basement so they’re not sitting out in the living room the entire Christmas season because yep, that’s what they used to do.

If you would like to see more of our family traditions and what we tend to focus on, what our everyday life looks like, I’ve been posting daily vlogs on my vlog YouTube channel.