I'm a lifelong apartment dweller, the product of two parents who also lived their entire lives in apartments, so I've always known the challenges of small-space living. One of those challenges has always been the placement (and the storage) of Christmas decorations. Just as my parents have had the same artificial Christmas tree for 30+ years, so too have they had a dedicated corner where we set up the family tree; a cramped corner that made decorating and admiring the tree a challenge to say the least.
Last year my sister and I set up the tree in a new location in the living room, one that required re-arranging a chair and side table, but that ultimately made the tree a more central and enjoyable part of our holiday celebrations. I myself spent the last weekend attempting to re-arrange furniture in my apartment to create space for my tree; the nook it occupied last year is now filled by a teak dresser that will have to relocate for the holiday season.
I would love to know how other folks handle the challenges of decorating in a small space. Do you have a smaller tree that works in your home? Do you completely forgo a tree in favor of other decorations? Are you like me, cramming an extra bureau into your bedroom in order to showcase your 7-ft tree? Inquiring minds want to know.
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I have a mini tabletop tree! Right now it's sitting on a credenza. It's covered in gold balls and colorful stars. Lots of candy canes, snowmen and bears. Not to mention new colorful energy-saving LED lights!
We decided that we didn't need the bar area off the backside of our kitchen counter, and have hung fabric from it for concealed storage. That's where we keep our 6 ft. tinsel tree in its box the rest of the year, as well as other bulky things like luggage that have nowhere to go in a loft with no closets.
Our ornaments and such are kept in round metal Ikea bins. I have a row them on top of our kitchen cabinets. Everything is out of the way, but easy to retrieve for holiday time!
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We put ours in the corner as well in front of our bookshelves..It's thinnish, fake white tree from Urban Outfitters. That's the only place i can really see it going and it does warm up the space nicely.
Last year I set a silver 3.5 ft tree on a small table near my fireplace. This put the whole tree up into the line of sight, saved floor space gave the small tree more "presence" in the room. It looked great and the tree fit nicely in a corner of the closet for storage. Also, I discoved that long boxes discarded by florists are just the right size to store both tree and decorations!
My sister helped me rearrange my entire living room so we could fit a 7' tree in. It's now situated in front of a window with the couch facing it.
I never manage spring cleaning but BOY do I ever deep clean in December! Not only did the living room furniture move but also the stuff in the large closet (to make room for the bench that's usually where the tree is) and the dining room (to get the table near the window so that the plants that live on the bench have a home). Oddly enough, I haven't got that many Christmas decorations, just two boxes of ornaments, garlands and lights. It might expand a bit this year, I added a wreath to my collection. All of them go up high in the closets, on shelves I won't want to climb up to the rest of the year.
I'm a fairly new apartment dweller (9 months) and was very excited to decorate for Christmas. Since I'm in a small space, at first my plan was to stick to festive vignettes - but the urge to buy a tree (a full-sized one at that) took over and I couldn't be happier. Nothing says Christmas time like a sparkly tree. I placed mine right in front of the window so I can admire it from the living room (where I spend most of my time) and that the reflection of the lights reflect off the window back into the apartment (almost like a mirror). Plus I like seeing twinkling trees from outside so I figure those passing by might appreciate it too.
Our 4ft. silver tinsel tree sits on top of my great grandma's sewing table in the corner of the living room. We stack the gifts under the table.
I rearrange my living room every year to make room for the 8 foot tree... I don't care if things are smooshed etc. Or that the chair isn't placed exactly right... the smell of the tree and the twinkle of the lights more than makes up for it...
and I hide to ornaments and decorations in a small antique trunk I keep on the top of my bookshelf the rest of the year...
We moved our cafe table onto the back porch to make room for our 8 foot tree. The chairs aren't outdoors ready so they'll probably go in the garage. I'll admit I'm really sad about not having the table to decorate for the season, but the tree takes precedence and it's the biggest tree we've ever had, so I'm okay with it.
We are living in a small apartment for the first time and were going to go with a small 2 ft tree on our coffee table rather than buy one with so little room. But when someone offered to give us a tree we ended up moving a whole bunch of stuff to make room during the holidays. Some stuff got stored behind our couch, an end table moved to our bedroom. It has all been worth it for our beautiful 6' tree!
One of these years I intend to get around to getting a tree...
We just put up our tree tonight! Thankfully we have an uncle with a basement who is kind enough to hold it for us each year- we wouldn't be able to store it otherwise, we have no extra room.
we just put ours on the sideboard. looks great!
We have a house now but it is small so this is still a challenge, compounded by the fact that I just inherited a bunch of lovely vintage ornaments from my grandmother - I want to display them and I would never, ever throw them away, but there are SO many of them! Also I collect snowglobes so there are those to store and display as well. Luckily we have a crawl space under the house to store it all in plastic bins. We get a 7 ft tree (live.. we compost it after Christmas) and put it in the living room corner in front of a book shelf and the snowglobes go on the shelves all around. This year I'm trying to spread out the ornaments and decorations throughout the house with smaller "trees" made from trimmed branches in vases.
In our apartment days we had a 3 ft artificial tree on our dining room table. A white lace tablecloth made it look like it was surrounded by snow. Now that one is the playroom, decorated by my daughter. :)
The best display for a tree I've seen though was at a friend's who cleared out an entire room and put it right smack in the middle all by itself. It was glorious. I just wish I had a room like that!
In my studio apartment, I would clear off a low bookcase and put a 4' tree on that. I had really high ceilings so I could still go with a full-sized star topper. The base of the tree would stick off the sides of the bookcase, but not so much that it was a problem I then put a table runner underneath as a "skirt."
Now I'm in a tiny house. My TV is on a smallish dresser and I normally have a bookcase next to it. The bookcase went upstairs into the spare room to make room a 7' slim tree. I love it because it's out of the way where the wall jogs but is still in perfect viewing range from the couch and dining table. Ideally I'll get a wider something for my TV and then I'll have to figure out a new plan for the tree.
Colleen, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for writing this in the first person!
My living room has a window that overlooks my deck. I went tromping through the woods, collected an array of greens and berries then connected those to my deck railing.
I also had a bracket for a hanging basket of flowers. The basket is put away, so I connected greens to the bracket and hung some plastic tree ornaments from that. I have a little winter wonderland in my small space that doesn't take indoor room.
I enjoy it so much that I bundled up and drank wine on my deck last night. Now when you consider I'm from northern Michigan that speaks volumes.
I am a slacker (and a clergyperson, at that!) so I have not decorated one bit yet for the high holy days. I haven't even gotten out my "Countdown to Christmas" nativity set. Whoops.
When I defeat the slacker tendency, we will either get another Norfolk island pine or another small, potted topiary type thing. We decorate it in tiny delicate ornaments- five years ago, I bought mini balls and strung them each with a single jingle bell and a ribbon. It's very musical and sparkly, and small enough so I can put it on the TV or on top of a bookshelf when I host too-big parties in my too-small-for-25-people space.
After the holidays, we have the fun of seeing how long the poor houseplant tree lives until it gives up the ghost and dies a slow death at my unfortunately black-thumbed hands. It is an annual or bi-annual rite of winter.