Stress-Free Holiday Décor: Simplifying to Elevate Festive Joy

Infuse your space with joy by displaying your favourite ornaments.

The holiday season brings a special magic, yet the rush of the season often leads to overwhelming stress. Between planning festivities, entertaining guests and decking the halls, finding simplicity in holiday decorating this year can be a saving grace. By adopting a few strategies, you can simplify holiday decorating and add a festive ambiance without overwhelming your space. Here are 5 strategies to simplify and enhance your holiday decorating this year.

1.     Joy-Check Your Ornaments

This holiday season is filled with joy, tradition, and sentiment. So, when it comes time to choosing which items to display, consider displaying the special few that bring you the most joy. To help you do this, I suggest applying Marie Kondo’s joy-checking method:

How to Joy-Check Your Ornaments:

• Begin by reaching for your absolute favourite ornament.

• Hold it in your hands and ask yourself, “Does this Spark Joy®?” and pay attention to how you feel.

  • If you feel excited, have a smile, or notice that your eyes light up with happy memories, that’s your sign it sparks joy and that you can proudly display it. Displaying the ornaments that bring you the most joy infuses your space with happy feelings.

  • If you find yourself feeling sluggish, or uncertain about the ornament and you find yourself explaining it, that’s a sign that you can either leave the ornament tucked away or you may even consider donating it to someone else who may find joy in it this season.

If you decide to donate an ornament, I suggest you consider 2 things:

1)      Because ornaments often carry sentimental value, sending it with a proper farewell will help offer you closure and help you avoid regret. Say something like, “Thank you ornament for coming into my life. I enjoyed the idea of having you decorate my tree, but my style and taste have changed over the years, and you’ve helped me learn that. It’s time I let you go so you can adorn another tree.”

2)      Consider donating your holiday décor toward the beginning of the season so that others can start enjoying them this year. If you’re not ready to let go, you can keep them tucked away until next year and try the process again to see how it evolves next year.

2.     Avoid Holiday Décor Clutter

The home we create and the atmosphere it evokes influences our emotions and how we make use of the space. Like the stress you may feel from mail piling up on the kitchen counter, or shoes strewn across an entryway, holiday décor that fills every nook and cranny of your home can also add to the stress of your space. Deciding to be intentional in your décor selections as well as the location of your décor placement can help give you an orderly and cohesive look. To help avoid décor clutter, I suggest applying two approaches to give you an intentional, clutter-free look:

Approach 1, Select a theme:

If after joy-checking your ornaments, you find that you’re still left with plenty of ornaments and you need a way to be even more selective of what goes up this year, you may want to consider categorizing your décor by theme. Selecting a theme is a way to pair down the number of items you’ll display this year which can:

• Help you save time in set-up and take-down, and

• Give you an intentional and cohesive look in your space.

  Ideas for holiday décor theme categories include:

  • Travel-theme: Eiffel Towers, croissants and baguettes and champagne bottles.

  • Mouse-theme: adorable fluffy mice in ski jackets, mice in ballet dresses, mice with wrapped presents, mice on ice skates.

  • Gardening, fairy theme: sparkle encrusted mushrooms with beaded butterflies and gold gardening shears.

  • Cute woodland animal theme: fluffy racoon, deer, bear, and bunny.

Approach 2, Designate space:

By deliberately choosing areas in your home to decorate, you’ll have focal points that let your eyes land which better evokes a sense of calm in your home. If your décor adorns every corner of your home, you may find the sense of overwhelm start to take over, because your eyes don’t know where to land. How many areas of your home you decorate depend on the shape and flow of your space. If you’re in a small condo, you may find that just a Christmas tree will suffice in filling your home with holiday joy. If you’re in a larger home, you’ll be able to designate coffee tables, sideboards, and bannisters for holiday décor.

3. Organized Vignettes: Artful Display Techniques

Using a boarder like a shelf, table, sideboard, or tray on a kitchen island allows you to display a variety of items in a cohesive and elegant way. Creating a balanced look takes practice. To help you, here are 5 tips:

1)      Theme: select a theme becomes the story line of your vignette. In this case, we’re working with Christmas. Consider adding bells, ornaments, evergreens, a Christmas book, Santa, and the like.

2)      Feel: to create a balanced vignette, it’s about the “feel” of it. If you have teacups stacked 25 high, it can give the feeling of a precarious state – it’s the same with a vignette. You add and subtract items until it “feels” balanced.

3)      Odd Numbers: balance is usually achieved in odd numbers. Begin by adding 3 items, and then go up to 5. Anymore and you run the risk of it looking cluttered, depending on the size of your space.

4)      Heights: select items with varying heights for visual interest – perhaps a tall candle or picture frame in the back and a short bell or ornament in the front.

5)      Textures/Materials: make use of metal, wood, cork, paper, wax, glass, etc. Varying textures and materials make it more interesting to appreciate how light reflects.

4. Holiday Décor Swap

When you walk the aisles of your home décor stores, you’ll find a whole range of Christmas décor from pillows, blankets, bedding to tea towels and even Christmas-themed dishes. If you’re looking to simplify this season, you may want to skip an entire festive home make over, and instead opt for just a couple of items to add to your space. If you’re looking to swap your everyday décor with your holiday décor, make use of your holiday storage to hold your everyday décor and then swap it back at the end of the season.

5. Mindful Additions: Integrate Meaningful New Pieces

New doesn't necessarily equate to essential. When considering new holiday décor, joy-check them before they even leave the store. If a new ornament or decoration sparks the same joy and sentiment as your cherished pieces, it can be a worthy addition. Embrace items that integrate with your established collections to maintain your cohesive look. Ask yourself whether it will enhance your festive atmosphere and bring value to your experience before committing to a new purchase.

Embrace Tranquility Amidst Festive Celebrations

The magic of the holidays lies not in the grandeur of decorations but in the warmth of cherished moments and meaningful connections. I hope that simplifying your decorations this year can help you savor more calm.

Happy holidays,

Stefanie