25 Merry Ways to Decorate Your Living Room for Christmas
'Tis the season to bring the holidays to every square inch of the house.
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Getting out your favorite holiday decorations can be a lovely and overwhelming experience all at the same time. Bauble after bauble brings back a holiday memory to savor, but every box of decorations begs the question, Where do I begin? The answer is easy: Your living room or den.
For starters, the living room is the most popular spot in the house for the Christmas tree, with its twinkling Christmas lights, the tinsel, the topper, your vast collection of Christmas ornaments, and all those carefully wrapped presents nestled beneath it, of course! But the tree alone does not make a fully festive living room. The holiday mantel holds tons of holiday decorating magic potential. It’s got the stockings, fancy Christmas garlands, collectibles, a roaring fire, and hello?!—it’s Santa's Christmas Eve entryway! Festive accessories like throw pillows, blankets, and other Christmas-y touches add to your overall decorating theme. Bring in vintage Christmas decorations that recall Christmases past for a one-of-a-kind layer of holiday charm.
Whether you choose to just decorate your living room for Christmas, or you deck out the whole house, there's one thing you can count on: There's no place like home for the holidays!
Merry up mantels and tables with the Pine Ridge Cabin. It is the perfect pint size escape. Don't miss the intricate details, like the wood-chopping station, canoe, and festive garland.
Vintage Christmas Living Room
Combine antique ornaments with a classic popcorn garland for this beautiful, clean look.
Nautical Christmas Living Room
If your living room already has a nautical feel, make it work for the holidays by tying bows onto existing decor and being generous with plain garland.
Natural Christmas Living Room
Add subtle Christmas decorations to your living room by filling bowls with pine cones and chestnuts ready to roast on an open fire.
Camp Christmas Living Room
The year-round use of red in this living room makes twirling it up for the holidays easy-peasy. The tree and throw pillows are peppered with pennants from the National Parks and roadside attractions. Campy details like the gingham curtains, braided rug, mugs, and oars on the wall lend nostalgic charm to this California cabin.
The More, The Merrier Living Room
Abundant seating invites family and friends to gather around the fire in this Litchfield County, Connecticut, country house living room. A creative Advent calendar garland offers a daily activity, from caroling to cookie-making.
Timeless Charm Living Room
A sweet dose of holiday plaid and vintage gift wrap bring a timeless quality to the family room in this Tennessee farmhouse. A caribou mounted over the mantel (check out his scarf!) keeps watch over a collection of apothecary bottles dressed up with fresh greenery.
Let Nature Sing Living Room
In this Lake Tahoe cabin, a snowy-white living room with accents straight from nature (the coffee table base, pine cones, and antlers are all forest freebies!) has an organic holiday style. Grain sack pillows offer a muted touch of red, while greenery, wooden ornaments, and kraft paper wrapping add to the understated decor. Tip: Swap store-bought bows for simple pine tree cuttings, which pair beautifully with brown paper packages.
Red Hot Living Room
Beyond plaid pillows and blankets, collectibles such as coolers, lanterns, thermoses, a tea pot, and vintage Santa mugs bring cheerful pops of red to this Michigan farmhouse's living space. The simple apple swag pays tribute to the orchard outside. To re-create it, use a skewer to puncture a hole through an apple close to the center, then string wire through the fruit and secure wire to the garland (here, Fraser fir).
Blue (and Green) Christmas Living Room
This Connecticut country house living room’s tree, displayed atop an antique sideboard, is limited to blue and green glass ornaments. Bare windows offer the ultimate blank canvas for hanging wreaths of juniper and blue spruce, mounted using adhesive hooks. Wrapped packages, a bowl of ornaments, and even candies repeat the blue and green color palette.
Visions of Sugarplums Living Room
A throw pillow celebrating "Candy Cane Wishes" sums up this colorful, sweet scene (even the dog has a treat of the chew-toy variety!). A comfy chair paired with a side table (with milk and cookies, of course) offers a spot for little ones to perch and gaze at the twinkling lights.
Tons of Tartan Living Room
A healthy dose of preppy plaid—from the throw pillows to the gift wrap—adds holiday warmth and coziness to this cabin in the woods living room. The tree is trimmed in the classic combination of glass globes and popcorn garland, but with a wooden crate in lieu of a tree skirt.
White Christmas Living Room
Designer Julie Holloway takes a laid-back approach to holiday style in her Atlanta ranch house. “Because I decorate all year, I’m a bit of a minimalist for the holidays,” she says. “We always haul out the heirloom ornaments, Christmas lights, and popcorn garlands for the kids. Beyond that, I pretty much stick to neutrals, with potted rosemary, fresh greenery, and rustic wooden and sparkly mercury glass accents.” A stick-on bow turns the botanical artwork into a tree.
The Ultimate Christmas Living Room
It's easy to see why this western Michigan farmhouse's living room is lovingly named "The Christmas Room," with its built-in holiday look of wall-to-wall red plaid carpeting and evergreen-colored paint (Lafayette Green by Benjamin Moore). The year-round decor is the ultimate backdrop for vintage holiday collectibles, including 4-H ribbons (found at the bottom of a thrift shop dollar bin), Shiny Brites, toys, paint-by-numbers, and vintage grain sack stockings.
Warm & Cozy Christmas Living Room
A set of four chairs around the coffee table encourages conversation and togetherness better than the conventional sofa setup found in most living rooms. A classic Christmas color scheme of red and white keeps the space simple and clean in this Wisconsin home. Antler candlesticks, faux fur throws, and a tree trunk table base up the cozy factor.
Minimalist Christmas Living Room
Subtle touches—silver and gold ornaments sprinkled throughout the bookshelves, greenery hung upside down to mimic tiny trees, a woodland owl snow globe, pinecones, and fuzzy pillows—create a quiet, sophisticated take on the season in this Atlanta rancher.
Red-Nosed Reindeer Living Room
The ice-skate stockings, colorful logs accented with chalk, and overall fresh holiday vibe bring a twinkle to the eye, but the cardboard taxidermy deer (with a Rudolph-red clown nose) steals the show in the snowy white setting of this historic Tudor home in Minnesota.
Desert Country Living Room
Move over, red and green! Southwestern finds—whimsical tepee ornaments, sunset-colored gift wrap—infuse this neutral living room with uniquely festive style. An Aztec-inspired rug and serape-striped gift wrap energize the room with authentic Southwestern motifs, as well as cactus, tepee, and dream catcher baubles.
Merry & Bright Living Room
In this Connecticut farmhouse, a pair of chairs covered in Pendleton fabric are arranged as a place to soak in the sun's warmth and the view of the tree. Twinkling Christmas lights stand in for stars for winter break "camp outs."
Woodland Christmas Living Room
Do Christmas in a very rustic, refined way. Fluffy feather ornaments are in perfect company with pinecone-shaped lights, white textured porcelain globes, and origami-like poinsettia ornaments. A midnight blue throw and matching gift wrap and ribbon introduce depth and a fresh color choice for this time of year.
Amy Mitchell is the managing editor for VERANDA and Country Living, where she writes articles on a variety of topics—decorating and design, gardens, and holidays. Amy’s experience in the shelter magazine category spans more than 20 years, as she’s previously held positions at Coastal Living and Cottage Living. Her personal pursuits include cooking, gardening, and hunting her favorite tag sale spots for the next piece of Pyrex for her prized collection.
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