Decorating the mantle or the tree might be a common activity for many of us right about now. But what about decorating the stair? Without a fireplace in my childhood home, we always hung the stockings from the stair rail. On Christmas morning, we'd all peek inside while sitting on the stairs. Here are a few other ideas for making the stairway into holiday-central in your home:
- Candles: Especially if you have a particularly wide stair or landing. We'd avoid it on our very narrow stair, but this sure is pretty.
- Candy: Place it in a container like these mugs or maybe paper cones for something more lightweight. It'll be there all season for a little sweet as you walk upstairs.
- Garland: Some real garland can even take the place of a Christmas tree, and it's really beautiful running up a stair.
- Banner: Hang a holiday message that runs right up the staircase.
- Lights: If you have an outlet handy, lights can really draw the eye up the railing, which can be striking. We love the festive string of lights and crystals pictured up top.
(Images: Real Simple, House to Home, Canadian House & Home, Southern Living, Ruby Slippers)
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Comments (10)
There are great looking battery-operated "candles" that you can put on your stairs that won't set your kid's bathrobe on fire Christmas morning.
The first two ideas just look like disasters waiting to happen due to small children, pets and clumsy/intoxicated/still half asleep adults. Then you have to clean up the broken glass, and you might have a Home Alone moment...
Um, the candles on the first couple of steps are directly in the middle of the step...not very safe or practical!
My parents wrap the little bit of exposed railing they have in garland. I've always loved helping with that - especially when we lived in a split level and the garland filled the whole foyer.
I see the first one just setting fire to people's clothing and/or the steps when they get knocked over. The ribbons to me just don't seem strong enough to hold the cups up like that for too long in the second picture...and the lights right next to the wood of the last scares me as well. Three and four are the only ones that look safe.
Beautiful - I was thinking of the battery candles too. You can get them in multipacks!
We're thinking of hanging our stockings there. Great idea!
The candles would be wonderful if there wasn't a puppy in my apartment whose favorite passtime is dashing up and down the stairs.
Love the mug idea, though. I've got about a thousand coffee mugs floating around and that would be a nice way to display them (for a few weeks, anyway) while also freeing up some cabinet space. Thanks!
Those fairy lights are gorgeous. Does anyone have a source? (I can't find one at the blog that's the home of the photo.)
And I doubt that fairy lights will burn down your house tied to a banister--at the very least they'd be no more dangerous than on a tree.
I suspect the fairy lights are a craft project -- some wire and crystals attached to ordinary lights.
My old house had about 6 feet of railing in the living room, and I loved to use Command hooks to hand lush pine garland long it, along with ornaments -- especially since there was no good place for a tree, so ours was a 3' mini on the dining table. Our new house has all enclosed stair wells -- walls on both sides, no place to view the decorations from. So we don't decorate them, since it would be a traffic hazard to try.
Who would put ANYTHING on the stair treads? I cannot imagine anything more annoying, let alone unsafe.
I do love the crystal garland in the last photo, though...may have to try something like that this year.