How To Reuse Your Christmas Decorations
The end of the Christmas season doesn’t mean your Christmas decorations have to go away. Many of your pieces of décor that you know and love (and that bring you joy!) can be reused throughout the year in a capacity that doesn’t necessarily scream “Christmas.” Instead, they’ll be nice pieces of décor that add festivity to your home no matter the season.
Here’s how to reuse your Christmas decorations all year long.
Hang String Lights In Your Kid’s Room
Your string lights don’t have to go away until next Christmas season, instead, you can string them around the windows in your child’s room or the doorframe. They could also be placed around a standing mirror. While this may not be an ideal way to frame the windows in your living room or kitchen, a child’s room is the perfect place for the whimsy that string lights bring to a space.
Your kids can turn the lights on and cuddle up with their favorite throw blankets and kids’ sweatshirts to create cozy evenings throughout the year.
Decorate Your Garden
Your lush Christmas greenery can easily be brought outside to your garden or front porch for a wintry take on the outdoor space. You can drape the greenery around the perimeter of your garden or make potted outdoor plant arrangements complete with fir, Christmas berries, and holly. These arrangements can go on the stairs leading to your home or in the garden itself. This can be done with either real or fake plants, too—the bonus with fake plants is these arrangements won’t die as the winter season goes on.
Hang Garland in The Kitchen
Certain Christmas garlands—like ones made of bells, stars, or mini red bows—are easy to keep up all year. For example, you can hang these kinds of garland in your kitchen window to give your family something festive to look at.
Make a Scrapbook
The Christmas cards you got from loved ones this year deserve a permanent home (that isn’t the trash can). Get yourself a scrapbook and arrange all of this year’s Christmas cards inside along with Christmas-colored pom-poms and other festive decor. This can even be made into a Christmas tradition; every year, you can create a scrapbook for all of the holiday cards you received. How fun to be able to look back at all of the cards from years past, too!
Keep Lighting Your Christmas Candles
There’s no reason to put your pine-scented candles away as soon as the date changes to December 26. Instead, you can keep them out and continue to light them all through the winter months. While certain scents (pine, gingerbread) may be associated most closely with Christmas, they aren’t only a Christmas scent—they’re a nice reminder of the festive season well beyond the season’s end.
Make an Ornament Display
You can make a festive ornament wreath or garland to keep up throughout the winter months, just focus on creating a piece of décor with ornaments in colors that don’t immediately scream Christmas—so, use shades of gold and silver or shades of blue. While ornaments are decidedly a Christmas item, when arranged appropriately, they can be used just as a seasonal item that can be hung up all year. You can even create themed ornament displays for upcoming holidays (like red, white, and blue for July 4 or pastel colors for Easter). Who said ornaments can only be used on the Christmas tree?
You can even get your kids to help with this craft, jut make sure the sleeves of their kids’ fleece are rolled up to protect their clothing from any craft glue.
Host a Belated Christmas Party
Everyone knows December is an extremely busy month. You can leave your Christmas décor up a little bit longer if you make arrangements to have a fun-filled Christmas party in January. People will be excited to celebrate the season after the stress that Christmas brings (holiday shopping, family parties, Christmas concerts, and more). And, this gives you a way to reuse your décor in a sense—instead of putting it away right after the holiday you can keep it up for your party guests to see in January. You can even go all out and encourage all guests to wear a Christmas sweater, which is another great way to use a Christmas item past the date of the holiday.
If All Else Fails, Put Your Décor Away Until Next Year
If you can’t find a use for some of your Christmas decorations, that’s OK. You can simply put the items you cannot use throughout the year away until next year. While you won’t be physically reusing them throughout the year, you will be protecting them for use next year—which is a great way to follow the eco-friendly “re-use” rule. And that’s important. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, people in the United States produce 292.4 million tons of waste each year—anything you can do to help reduce this is a great feat.
No matter how you decide to reuse your Christmas decorations after the holiday, your home will be in for a festive treat. Your Christmas décor purchases will go further than ever once you start using them beyond the Christmas season.