Decorating My Apartment for Christmas with a $50 Budget
Welcome back to “decorating my apartment on a budget!” This is one of my favorite blog series because it forces me to stay on budget and get creative with ordinary, cheaper items. I was especially excited to do this edition because it’s Christmastime!
It’s a magical time of year, and this year, Christmas means so much! Staying inside is a no brainer this year, so it is even more important than ever to ensure your personal space is decked TF out! Now is not the year to settle for a Charlie Brown Christmas tree and nothing more. Now is the year for going all out and literally barfing up Christmas (or your holiday of choice) all over your home. It’s time to bring out your inner Martha May Whovier, and win the Christmas decorating contest. If you don’t know who I’m talking about, please refer to this video…
Anyway, if you don’t have an actual house, but rather live in an apartment, like me, then it’s going to be a little difficult to decorate the outside of your home, but not impossible. If you can’t cover your outdoor space in dazzling Christmas lights, you still decorate your front door for all of your Amazon delivery folks to see.
Spruce up your front door with a cute holiday wreath and add a fun, festive doormat to greet yourself and your roommates when you get home! Good, affordable wreaths are extremely hard to come by, so I recommend getting one of the cheaper, plain wreaths from Amazon or one of the dollar stores, and decorate it yourself. Or, if you’re not that creative, you can get one of the 99 Cent Store’s pre-decorated wreaths for $3 or catch a nicer one on sale on Black Friday/Cyber Monday at Kohls! This year, I decided to get some of the pre-decorated wreaths from the 99 Cent Store, and then “borrow” a DIY decorated wreath from my mom.
Okay, now that the inside is covered, let’s move it indoors, where we will all be this Christmas! The inside of my apartment is decorated with a huge mix of items combining decor I had in storage from Christmas’ past, my boyfriend’s decorations he already had, and the new decorations I bought at the 99 cent Store this year with my $50 budget. For the purpose of this blog, I’m only going to be discussing the items I bought this year, within my budget, because that’s the point. If you’re interested in any of the other items I have shown in the photos, feel free to leave a comment asking me where I got it!
First stop, candy section! Yes, I have been trying to eat less sugar, and to be honest, I don’t even like candy canes, but I had to buy some for my decor! Recently, one of my favorite DIY holiday decorating trends has been to add holiday items to an empty mason/glass jar and placing them on end tables in the living room. Doing this just adds such a cute touch to your decor. For Fall, I added potpourri into the jars with pinecones and burlap ties, and this year, I used mini candy canes, red present fluff, and a $1 holly and bird figurine. They turned out to be so cute! Then, I placed them next to a $1 Christmas sign, and a $ holiday mug that looks an awful lot like last year’s Target holiday mug collection! The final pieces looked so good and only cost me $5 per set.
On another side table, I got extra creative. I utilized white sheet packing paper from a package I ordered as a snowy base, then topped it with three cute $1 Christmas metallic-looking funky tree paperweights from the Dollar Tree, and a miniature white plastic tree ($2.99) decorated with mini silver and blue sparkling ornaments ($2). I was so impressed with how well this snowy scene came out and even more impressed when I realized it only cost me $8!
Moving further through the living room, I picked up a couple of wall items, like large snowflakes, Christmas signs, fuzzy candy canes, and the best $1 stockings I have ever seen (all from the 99 Cent Store)! Finally, I added my little $3 tree family to the corners of my TV stand and lined the ceiling with tinsel! This might just be my best work yet!
I am so incredibly happy with how well my apartment turned out and how cute and posh my little tree families look! I hope you all got a bit inspired by my decor! Let me know what other holiday finds you come across the next time you go to your local dollar store.
