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This post shows you how to decorate a small living room for Christmas.
There are some tricky parts when it comes to decorating a small apartment for the holiday. You can’t fit a 6 ft Douglas Fern into your living room for one thing! (I tried and failed, it looked awful and was a mess)
This is an easy fix because there are so many alternatives to a Christmas tree. You can create a cute christmas tree ladder if you’d like:35 Beautiful DIY Christmas Tree Ladder Ideas To Jolly up a Small Apartment
Or you can just get a smaller tree and put it on a table top. There are so many ways to play it.
Here are two festive examples:
But the size of a Christmas tree is just one piece of the puzzle! This post will focus on colorful Christmas home decorations that are to scale and create a beautiful and festive Christmas spirit in your apartment living room.
How To Decorate your Small Living Room for Christmas
1. Pin Up a Little Christmas Magic on Your Bulletin Board
Okay, this one is just plain cute. A bulletin board covered in vintage Christmas cards, little paper Santas, and pretty ribbon is such a fun way to bring in the holiday spirit. It’s like a mini gallery wall but way more fun and cozy.
I love this idea because it costs almost nothing. Dig out old cards, print some vintage images, or grab a few cute ones from a craft store. Clip them up with little clothespins and you’re done.
2. A Tiny Tree in a Basket
A little lit-up tree in a cute woven basket for a pop of festive fun on your counter, your table, or anywhere you need a bit of Christmas cheer. It’s such an easy way to bring in that cozy holiday glow without dragging a huge tree into your living room.
35 Beautiful DIY Christmas Tree Ladder Ideas To Jolly up a Small Apartment
3. Deck Your Mantel Out in Every Color
A rainbow bauble wreath hung right over the mantel, with a colorful garland wrapped in mixed lights running underneath. Little bottle brush trees, striped candles, and ornaments in every shade tucked in along the greenery make the whole mantel feel like a mini celebration.
I really like how nothing here matches on purpose. The pinks, blues, yellows, and greens all mixed together are what make it feel so festive instead of one specific “theme.” It’s a nice reminder that Christmas decor doesn’t have to be perfectly color-coordinated to look good!!
If you already have a plain green garland, this is such an easy one to recreate by just clipping on mini ornaments and a few strands of colorful string lights instead of buying anything new.
A “Merry and Bright” Banner Says It All
One banner and suddenly the whole mantel has personality~
You don’t need ornaments, extra lights, or a full village to make a mantel feel colorful. Sometimes one good banner against plain greenery does more than a mantel packed with ten different things.
A banner and a couple of stockings roll up flat in a drawer, which is always a nice bonus for small apartment life.
4. Start with Garland, Then Make It Colorful
I had to look more closely to realize this is a hallway! Turn your mirror or hallway into a lovely Christmas moment with this easy decorating idea. Start with Garland, Then Make It Colorful.
A simple pine garland wrapped around a doorway or mirror is a great starting point, like in this example with Christmas Cards and berries tucked into the greenery. Plain garland alone already looks put together, so you’re not starting from nothing.
From there, you can build up the color however you want. Swap the cards for colorful ornaments, add a strand of string lights in mixed colors, or tuck in some ribbon in a few different shades. Even clipping on a handful of bright bows here and there changes the whole feel.
5. Tuck a Colorful Tree Right into the Corner
This tree is so full, packed with red and pink ornaments and ribbon woven all through the branches.
A corner is honestly the perfect spot to load up on color like this, since the tree gets to be the star without taking over the whole room. Such a delightfully colorful tree.
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6. Decorate your Coffee table with Colorful Ornaments & Candy
A pretty bowl piled high with shiny ornaments and Christmas candy sitting right on the
coffee table is an easy, tasty and colorful christmas decoration.
It’s such a whimsical little touch, and a good excuse to set some candy out for Santa, and yourself, while you’re at it.
An ornament garland with iridescent glass ornaments in pink, teal, and gold, spilling right out of a shallow bowl instead of hanging on anything. Little glitter bottle brush trees and a tiny gingerbread house tucked in around it fill out the display.
The bowl doesn’t even need to hold everything neatly. Letting the ornaments spill over the edge gives it that full, overflowing look without any hanging or arranging involved.
This is a nice option if you already have an ornament garland sitting in storage and want a whmsical way to use it that isn’t just wrapping it around a tree.
7. Hang Little Wrapped Presents from Your Doorway
Mini gift boxes wrapped in paper and tied with ribbon, hung on strings at different lengths from a tree branch or window frame. It’s such a fun, unexpected way to add dimension, way more interesting than ornaments alone.
Grab whatever colorful wrapping paper scraps you have leftover from actual gift wrapping. Reds, greens, plaids, whatever you’ve got works, since the mix of patterns and colors is what makes this look so full and festive.
Sew Your Own Fabric Advent Calendar
A hanging fabric advent calendar with little pockets for each day, filled with tiny notes,
ornaments, and treats. Each pocket is a different floral or gingham fabric, so no two days
look quite the same.
8. Decorate around your TV
Garland along the console, a couple mini village houses, candles in the gaps, and suddenly the TV isn’t the first thing you notice anymore.
The draped garland softens that hard line instead of framing the screen like a picture.
Go flameless on the candles near any cords. Once the lights are low, you can’t tell the difference anyway.
9. Dress up your Mirrors
It’s lovely to group the bows along the top instead of spread evenly around the whole
frame. It gives the mirror a wreath-like shape without buying an actual wreath.
You can recreate this with a handful of gift bows in different sizes and colors, just cluster
them with double-sided tape.
10. Use Vintage-Style Colorful Ornaments
I like how there’s zero white space left on the tree here.
Santas, nutcrackers, and glass ornaments in red, green, and gold are all layered on top of each other instead of spaced evenly apart.
You can recreate this by mixing figural ornaments with classic glass balls and beaded
garland, and just keep adding until the branches disappear.
11. Hang Snowflakes and Lights Right in the Window
The staggered heights are what make this work, snowflakes hanging at all different lengths instead of one flat row.
You can recreate this with string lights taped along the window frame and a mix of snowflake ornaments hung on fishing line or thin ribbon.
12. Get your Reading Nook Cozy & Festive
If you have a small reading nook, this is another perfect spot to dress up for Christmas. Some fun and colorful throw pillows keep it playful and festive.
The cute ottoman (looks like a peppermint candy 🍬) is a fun piece that you can totally repurpose to a bedroom or bathroom after Christmas is over.
You can recreate this with string lights wrapped along your shelves, a few Christmas figurines tucked into open spaces, and one soft, oversized piece up front to make it feel cozy and colorful.
13. Small Pops of Christmas Colors
Who doesn’t love a good Christmas velvet accessory? It’s the perfect way to add some rich, deeper color into your small living room Christmas decor.
These velvet star ornaments in a warm mustard gold bring in texture you just don’t get from typical glass or plastic pieces. Easy to store away but you might not mind having these cuties out for a while.
14. Create a Christmas Tree with Books
This one’s for anyone who’d rather not give up shelf space in a small apartment living room for a real tree.
Stack a few old hardcover books in a rough pyramid, prop them on a brass candlestick holder for height, and you’ve basically got a tree.
The olive ribbon is pretty, but this is such an easy spot to bring in some fun colors.
Swap it for a bright pink or red velvet ribbon and suddenly the whole thing feels a lot more colorful Christmas and a lot less neutral.
15. Dress up Your Wall Art Behind the Couch
This is such an easy trick if you already have framed art on the wall. Just drape a big gingham ribbon bow over the top corner and let it hang down over the frames, no nails or hooks needed.
The red plaid throw pillows and gingerbread throw blanket bring in that same red and white without it feeling matchy. And the little flocked mini trees tucked around the room fill in gaps a full-size tree can’t reach.
16. Go Wild With DIY Christmas Garland
Isn’t this cute?? The paper chain garland running along the ceiling is such a nostalgic
touch and brings you right back to arts and crafts you did in elementary! ( how can you
forget that popsicle stick photo frame you made when you had missing front teeth?)
The mug display shelf stocked with Christmas mugs turns a plain wall into part of the
decor, and the little Santa figurine garland strung across the console table is such a fun and playful detail.
17. If You don’t want to go to the ceiling with Garland
This is a good alternative if you don’t want your entire living room covered in paper chains.
You can decorate a hutch, your bookshelf, or even your coffee table with a cute trio of
bows, garland and some star garlands.
18. Hang a Bucket List for the Season
I like how this isn’t just decor, it’s actually functional too.
A big sheet of butcher paper taped to the wall becomes a running Christmas bucket list,
and the wood bead garland with bells and red stars draped over the top turns it into part
of the display.
You can recreate this by taping up butcher paper, writing out your Christmas to-dos in
marker, and layering a bead and bell garland with a few sprigs of greenery along the top
edge.
19. Hang Ornaments & Garland
If you have a full-lenth mirror or a small hallway that always looks a little bare during
Christmas, this is the perfect way to create a little cozy in your small living room.
You can go simple with some colorful postcards or if you want something even more
colorful, you can use ornaments instead.
20. Your Houseplant
This is my mom’s signature move when she comes to my place. Every plant will be decked
out in tiny ornaments by the time she leaves. She uses pipe cleaners in a pinch if I don’t
have any hooks, just twists them around a branch and loops the ornament on.
It’s such an easy way to bring Christmas into rooms that don’t have space for a tree, and it
makes your regular plants feel festive without buying anything new. You can recreate this
with a handful of mini ornaments, some small hooks or pipe cleaners, and whatever plants
you’ve already got around the house.
21. Your Picture Frames
This trick turns picture frames into wrapped presents. Wrap canvas prints or old frames in holiday wrapping paper, then tie a ribbon bow on each one. Group them together like a gift wall.
I love that it’s mostly stuff you already have. You can recreate this with any frames lying around, some patterned wrapping paper, and a few yards of ribbon.
22. Velvet Ribbon for Little Touches
This is the smallest possible upgrade with the biggest payoff. Tie velvet ribbon to the arms of your chandelier and let it trail down.
The deep red against warm brass looks so rich. You can recreate this with a few yards of wide velvet ribbon tied onto any light fixture, curtain rod, or stair rail.
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23. Or go wild
This is what happens when you let a paper chain garland take over the ceiling. Star garland and paper chain garland hang down at all different lengths, layered over botanical prints on the wall.
It’s a lot, in the best way. You can recreate this with a mix of hanging star garland and homemade paper chains in warm reds and golds, strung from the ceiling at varying lengths.
24. Use your Wrapping paper as Decor
Perfect kind of decor for a small space, you get a wrapping station and decor in one. Rolls of holiday wrapping paper stand upright in a wicker basket by the fireplace, tied off with bits of ribbon so they double as a display.
Smart way to store what you’re already using without hiding it in a closet. You can recreate this with a tall basket, your prettiest wrapping paper rolls, and a few ribbon scraps tied around each one.
25. Create Little Vignettes on Tables and Credenzas
This is the last stop when the big spots are done, dressers and side tables. A colorful beaded wreath hangs on the mirror above, and a few mercury glass trees in pink and green sit next to a framed print, the lamp already there just becomes part of it.
Small space, big color payoff. You can recreate this with a mini wreath for a nearby mirror, a couple of glass or ceramic trees in fun colors, and whatever’s already on the table to build around.
THIS POST SHOWED YOU COLORFUL CHRISTMAS DECOR FOR SMALL LIVING ROOM.
You may also enjoy reading:
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