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Holiday Décor for Less than an Olive Garden Date

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

It’s December, ladies!!! It’s time to quit being a Grinch and jolly up your dorm room or apartment with some holiday décor. The good news is that you don’t have to break the bank to bring holiday cheer into your living space.

I did a little experiment and found that I could successfully accessorize my apartment for the price of a date night at The Olive Garden. Here’s an itemized list of the supplies I got from my local Walmart.

Feel free to browse the aisles and see what decorations tickle your fancy. I really centered my décor around hanging non-breakable ornaments, but feel free to go jingle-balls-to-the-wall and add garland, snowflakes, etc. Here’s what I purchased:

$5.94 Cord

$3.98 Six pack of ornaments

$4.95 Six pack of ornaments

$3.48 Multi pack of ornaments

$3.69 Shipping tape

The fun part of holiday decorating is finding ways to display your unique style. The color palette in my living room incorporates a lot of metallics and blue tones, so I decided to play with deeper navy tones in my ornament installations.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that varying the shape, size, and finish will add a lot of depth and dimension to your overall space. I know that might sound intimidating to mix and match ornaments on your own, but Walmart made it very easy this year. You can find packs with up to 24 assorted plastic ornaments that does the mixing and matching for ya!

 

(Photo Courtesy of Mira Brody)

For all my North Village homies, those fugly ceiling orb lights look MUCH better with a cluster of ornaments, garland, or faux flowers hanging from them. The tape comes off super easily, so don’t worry about housing freaking out about your décor.

For added ambiance, I found that you can color the plastic portion of those orb lights with dry erase markers. With a wash of winter blue or romantic red, your space can be totally transformed! (don’t worry, the marker wipes off with a wet paper towel.)

 

(Photo Courtesy of Mira Brody)

I even taped some to the inside of this lamp shade to add some more holiday flare. I personally love the look of a cluster of hanging ornaments, which adds the perfect touch of holiday sparkle to any collegiate space. You can hang these babies just about anywhere that the shipping tape will adhere to.

 

(Photo Courtesy of Mira Brody)

If you have some leftover ornaments, don’t be afraid to display them in cute clusters wherever you have some space to do so.

 

While this time of the year can be stressful, putting some TLC into decorating your space for the holidays will definitely raise your spirits!

Mira Brody is a writer for Her Campus at Furman University. Mira is a senior Communications Studies major here at Furman, but her real passions are comedy and design. She is on our campus improv comedy troupe, Improv!able Cause (shameless plug) you can follow her shenanigans on Instagram @improvablecausefu. A few fun facts about Mira: She can’t burp, she's from south Florida, and she's a hoe for chipotle mayo.
Mackenzie Smith is the Campus Correspondent and Editor-in-Chief of Her Campus at Furman University. She is a senior majoring in Public Health with a minor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Mackenzie has a passion for making sure women feel empowered and important throughout all stages of life which can be seen through her work with Girlology and The Homeless Period Project.