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Candy Canes Ornaments Christmas
Candy Canes Ornaments Christmas
Jocelyn Hsu / Spoon
Style > Decor

Decorating Your Dorm for the Holidays

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Emory chapter.

It’s mid-November so I can proudly say that weĀ survived Halloweekend! Celebrating Halloween for two weeks straight combined with the intro level philosophy class I took freshman year has made me realize that time is just a social construct. That means we can start celebrating whatever holiday we want whenever we want to! Want Halloween to last another few months? Full send that sh*t! Ready to celebrate Christmas right now? Que some Mariah Carey. St. Patrick’s day forever? Pull out the ā€œKiss Me Iā€™m Irishā€ crop top. Want to celebrate a birth month instead of a birthday? Letā€™s get this party started!!Ā 

Ok so maybe the whole campus wonā€™t celebrate with you but you can put yourself in the mood by decorating your dorm room. Time to channel your inner HGTV reality TV star. We donā€™t need the Property Brothers to transform our fixer-upper dorm rooms into happy places to escape classes and celebrate the holidays! We can do it ourselves! I have created the ultimate list of easy versatile and festive ways to decorate for any celebration.Ā 

1. Letter Boards

You know them, you love them, every basic b*tch has them. These are fun because you can customize them to say whatever your heart desires. You can let your beautiful personality shine through and send whatever message you want to anyone who enters your room. Iā€™ve seen letter boards everywhere, they come in any color imaginable and after searching through Pinterest to find the perfect example picture, I saw that a lot of people decorate the wood or plastic frame with stickers and gems, and I gotta say I am here for it!

2. Scents

We have to get creative here. Who says decorations have to be visual. When someone enters your room all of their senses need to be hit by your holiday of choice. Before you even turn on the lights, they will know what the f*ck is up! Make your room smell like a holiday. We have a few different options here. You could do a diffuser, a wall plug in air freshener, a candle (but be careful and donā€™t tell the RA), some Febreeze, or just go crazy and hang a car air freshener up in there.Ā 

3. Lights

Hit the lights! Nothing sets the mood like some colorful lights. Keeping Halloween alive for one more month? Hit ā€˜em with some orange, purple, even white lights. Chanukah? Hang some blue and white lights. Christmas? Red, green, and white. So white will work for anything. Just want to celebrate life in general? Multicolor lights! The color doesnā€™t even matter just pick some lights that make you happy.Ā Ā 

4. Countdown

Have a random whiteboard? A letter board? A scrap piece of paper? Some markers? A pencil you found on the floor of libs? You can make a countdown. I know for me, a countdown gives me something to look forward to each day and hypes me up for whatever Iā€™m counting down to. That excitement is definitely something I need in my life with the end of midterm season and the start of finals coming way too fast.

5. Tree

Ok, it might be a stretch to make this one versatile, but hear me out. Iā€™ve seen people hang white claws on a little artificial Christmas tree and I personally would keep that up year-round. A tree can be just another part of your room that you get to decorate and spice up for the holidays.

Make your room a happy place, channel your inner HGTV, and have fun in a post-Halloweekend college!

Mia is a senior at Emory University pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) with a concentration in marketing. She has lived in Atlanta her whole life and loves experiencing the city as a college student. Mia loves romance books, listening to podcasts on walks, and time spent with friends and family.
Hong Kong born and raised, Manishka is widely known for two things ā€“ her clumsiness and her ability to spend hours laughing at her own jokes! When sheā€™s not busy trying to find out how she got her latest bruise, she can usually be found eating an avocado, while re-watching Gossip Girl for the 6thā€¦noā€¦ 7th time! Her hobbies include raiding the fridge, stalking Doug the Pug on Instagram and trying to find out the secret ingredient in Krabby Patties.