We don’t have very much room to store holiday decorations, and I don’t want to allocate tons of space for items that only get used one month out of the year. Here’s how I decorate our two bedroom apartment for Christmas and keep it minimal.
My decor is mostly separated into three seasons: spring/summer, fall, and Christmas. I have basically the same decorations for each season, simply in different colors or variations. This goes for our curtains, our throw pillows, our blankets, and any seasonal knick knacks we have around our house.
I also want to let everyone reading this post know that my house is NEVER this clean in real life. Every single one of these photos was staged during nap time, all of our usual clutter was gathered and dumped in a pile out of frame, and my husband was told not to touch a single thing until I had finished taking pictures. Then I took several shots at each angle and edited them. So if your house doesn’t look like mine does in these pictures, please know that my house doesn’t look like these pictures either. The only pictures that are a good reflection of real life are the wreaths on the door because it’s outside.
THE CRATE CORNER
The Christmas tree! We do not have the floor space available for a regular tree, our ceilings are only 6 1/2 feet high in some places and 8 feet in others, and we have a 10-month-old child and an 18-month-old dog that would quickly destroy an easily accessible tree. For all of these reasons, we chose to set up a 4 foot tree on top of Lucky’s crate. It’s absolutely perfect. It’s displayed high enough to be able to see, but the presents are high enough that they are safe from Calvin’s curious little hands. Then we switched out our yellow blackout curtains for red ones. I also flipped the ‘Blessed’ sign over to display the Christmas side, removed the fall flowers from the vase, moved it to the left of the window, and added my little one-piece Nativity.
THE COUCH AND BLANKET LADDER
This area is one of my favorites to change up with the seasons. I always leave the two outside pillows as they are, but change up the pillow covers for the middle three. For Christmas, I switch the orange and burlap pumpkin covers for red and burlap Christmas ones! Then I just rearrange the blankets on the ladder so that they match the color scheme for the rest of the room. This year, I’m covering the brown and orange plaid blankets from fall and displaying white, buffalo check, and red plaid for Christmas. I also added a red and white throw to the couch for easy access on chilly mornings.
OUR DOOR
We live in a basement apartment, so I don’t put lights up for Christmas, but I do love hanging a fresh wreath on my door every year. I’ve actually made my own fresh Christmas wreath for the last three years. Stay tuned for a blog post on how you can make your own as well!
THE KITCHEN
The only decorations in my kitchen are the sign on the pantry door, the towels that hang on the oven, the center decor on the stove, something cute and festive above the sink, and my curtains. For Christmas, I switched the pantry sign (I use Command picture hanging strips, so all I had to do was pull the old sign off and stick the new sign up with the strip already stuck to the back from last year), switched out my towels, changed the pumpkin to a tree, hung my red curtains in place of the yellow, and exchanged the pumpkin truck for a little red wooden train and trees.
THE VIBE
Overall, I want my home to be comfortable, cozy, and safe for my son to play in as usual. By having my decorations in almost the exact same places year round, I am able to maintain the familiarity of my home while still shifting the vibe with the seasons. I also love that I don’t have to rearrange furniture or store many seasonal items. For the most part, I store curtains, pillow covers, kitchen towels, 6-8 knick knacks per season, plus a Christmas tree, ornaments, and stockings for Christmas. This works so well for us and I hope to continue to have a simple decor system when we eventually move to a bigger space!
Thanks for joining me as I redecorated our apartment for the Christmas season. I absolutely love this time of year and I love the cozy, happy memories that we get to make. If you want shopping links to any of the decor or products you see in my home, please feel free to email me, leave a comment, or send me a message on Instagram and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can! Thanks for being here.
BARREL OF MERRELL'S 
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