The holiday season during college can feel pretty lonely when you’re away from family, prepping for finals, or dealing with seasonal sicknesses, and it can really damper your holiday spirit.
An easy way to get back into the festive vibes can be to decorate your dorm for the season. Here are five ideas to help with holiday homesickness and bring a little cheer to your living situation:
- Bows
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I’m a huge fan of the bow trend, and adding cute, festively colored bows around your room can be a cheap, easy, and minimalistic way to decorate.
I’ve tied ribbons to vases, door handles, and chairs and even fastened them straight to the wall as decorations. This is such an easy way to customize the space because you can put as many bows as you want wherever you want!
- Colored Lights
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The overhead lighting in the dorms can be blindingly harsh and not the best vibe-setter. Little lights around your room, like lamps and fairy lights, can make the space feel so cozy. Using Christmas tree lights during the holidays can also bring some cheer to the end of your year. You can hang them up using Command hooks around the top of the walls.
If you already have LEDs, you can set them to holiday-centric colors. My favorite addition to my living space was a Bluetooth lightbulb that could be set to any shade of color I desired. I put the lightbulb in a lamp and connected it to my phone for easy access to the controls and settings.
- Holiday Scents
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Decorations don’t just have to be visible; they can cater to your other senses, too! For example, you can decorate the air with fun scents. While candles aren’t allowed in the dorms, you can use an essential oil diffuser, room sprays, or a wax warmer with scents that remind you of your favorite winter holiday.
Cinnamon, gingerbread, or sugar cookie scents can be reminiscent of homemade baked goods. Pine and cloves can bring the smell of a real tree to your room. Peppermint is a sweet, refreshing smell that many people use year-round. Mixing and matching fragrance oils allows you to customize your own nostalgic blend for the perfect holiday scent.
- Throw Pillows and Blankets
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Your dorm is your bedroom, with emphasis on the bed! The bed is such a focal point in a dorm, and decorating it can make your whole room appear ready for the season.
Cute throw pillows and blankets on neutral bedding can make for an easy swap in and out of the holidays. Holiday iconography in the form of plushies can also be a fun addition to your sleep space.
- Trinkets
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I love a cute decoration trinket and one of my favorite places to find them is at Target. Bullseye’s Playground, the discount section at the front of the store, usually puts out three packs of holiday decor for around $3.
There are a range of options like snowmen, mini trees, nutcrackers, Santas, elves, battery-operated candles, mini baubles, menorahs, and reindeer. Whatever your preference for holiday icons, you can look for them at your nearest Target or craft store.
There are so many small ways to decorate that can make a big difference in spirit, no matter your budget or time allowance. Your environment can have a huge effect on your mindset, so making it fun, while it may seem trivial, can be important. Happy decorating!
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