I almost didn’t decorate for Christmas this year, because we’re not going to be home Christmas week. We will be away on vacation, so I thought there’s just no point getting into all that. But then social media happened to me. I was bombarded by beautiful pics of everyone decorating for Christmas and I couldn’t help myself. 

And I’m so glad I did. We’re not here for Christmas.. but we’re here now. And the home looks happy and festive, and makes us smile when we walk in. 

Decorating For Christmas: 

So let me show you what I did. Since I had no intention of decorating for Christmas this year, I had not given any thought too, nor invested in any decorations. I did have everything from last year, but I didn’t want to just repeat last year’s decorations.

Yet, starting with what you already have is always a great place to start. So that is what I did.

Starting With The Entrance:

Last year we had decorated outside our home with a gorgeous Christmas garland. I didn’t want to do that again, so this year we got the garland inside the home. I’ll show you what we did with that later. 

This time round, we did up the entrance into our home from the foyer.

That wreath was on our main door last year. This time I hung it above the entrance door. Now if I could get some mistletoe to complete it, it will be perfect! I also added some hanging snowflakes and put some stars on the frame to add a little bling.

Then I lined up all our Christmas stockings one above the other, and it’s Christmas as soon as you enter the home!

Kandeel Candlestands:

While going through all my Christmas decorations, I also found these little mini ‘kandeels‘ we used in Diwali this year. We had a dozen of them hanging along the length of our living room door, which opens into the balcony. I had actually asked the shopkeeper for pink ones, but he had run out of those and gave us red instead. 

Now isn’t red just perfect for Christmas? I decided I had to use these… but how?

I realised I had these thick, white, pillar candles which would fit into the kandeels perfectly. As it turned out, they didn’t fit in perfectly, but I loved the idea. So we unstapled the kandeels to open them up, resized each one to fit around a candle, and stapled them up again.  

We had red and white, so we added a ribbon in green around each candle to complete the Christmas look.

We had another red candle which we placed on our side table to add some Christmas to that corner too.

I think we did pretty well in turning traditional Diwali decor into something perfect for Christmas!

I also took some Christmas ornaments and simply stuck them with cello-tape to the inside of the lampshade. This took all of 5 minutes, and makes that lamp shade look so festive.

Red-Gold-And-Green:

I added some green cushions to complete the red-gold-and-green look. And that stole, used as a throw to just make the space look more festive.

This plant with it’s pretty red rimmed leaves, in it’s bright red pot, reminds me of Christmas all year round. I couldn’t possibly complete decorating for Christmas without it. 

Hanging Snowflakes:

The next thing we tackled was the corner above the lamp. It was an empty space asking to be decorated.

I had this long silver pearl garland from last year. I cello taped it to the ceiling in loops of varying length. At the bottom of each loop we tied a snowflake. Then we strung some fairy lights into the garland, and this corner was ready.

And with that, our living room is ready to say hello to Santa!

Dining Room:

Our dining nook was looking too lonely compared to our living area, so next we tackled that. Remember how I had hung garlands of marigold from our dining lights for Diwali? I now swapped those for Christmas ornaments. I stuck one each with a bit of cello tape to the bottom of each light.

The garland, we decided, would go above our dining nook this year. I wound it around the rafters above our dining table and it stayed put quite easily. We added various baubles along its length and completed it with a string of fairy lights.

The garland and the lights were looking really pretty, but the table looked bare. So we thought we’d make a little centre piece to go on the lazy Susan. 

I had some paper doilies in my decoration box, and a quick search on Pinterest showed me this really easy DIY to make Christmas trees from them. I stuck the trees into Play-Doh balls and placed them all in a large tray, along with some candles and decorations.

We had a sweet and simple Christmas centre piece ready in no time!

The dining nook was set too.

In fact, it’s glow lights up the whole living room beautifully.

Our Bedroom:

I couldn’t resist adding some Christmas cheer to our bedroom too. A couple of the paper doily trees along with a little reindeer into my bedside plant made a cute ‘Christmas tree’ for us. A bowl full of pine cones and one of our ‘kandeel‘ candles to add some warmth, and my side table is set.

We pinned up a few gift wrapping bows on to our cushion covers for some festive vibes. And that beautifully embroidered Kashmiri shawl makes a perfectly warm and rich throw for the bed.

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That’s it. Our home looks Christmas ready and fit to welcome Santa, whether we’re here or not. I’m so glad I got down to decorating for Christmas. It’s half a day’s effort that will give us joy for the next few weeks to come.

I hope you’re planning on decorating for Christmas too. In case you’re looking for more tips, we have some great posts on super easy Christmas decor ideas. So do take a look at them.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments and ideas too… so remember to write in a note below before you leave.

And have a very merry Christmas!

Until next time,