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13 Cozy Christmas Living Room Decor Ideas

ByLauren
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13 cozy Christmas living room decor ideas to add warmth and comfort while helping your home stretch seamlessly into winter.

This morning, I totally broke down and cried. And bless Robert’s heart, he sat there patiently and listened as I poured out all of my stress from the past week.

“December is so exhausting… I love Christmas but all of the work involved makes me resent it… I feel like we are always running from place to place… No matter how much I do, I feel an immense guilt and question if I’m a good mom.”

And that’s when I realized, I have spread myself way too thin this year packing out our schedule with travel, special plans, tasks, and pressures no one else is putting on me except myself.

Living room decorated for Christmas with cozy candles and greenery

So I said a little prayer and resolved right then and there that whatever gift shopping, event planning, meal prepping I had done to this point was enough. Mom is done. That’s it. No more. I’d lost sight of what Christmas is really about.

Moms deserve to enjoy this season, even if that means with less “stuff” and fewer parties.

I plopped myself on the couch and “called in sick” for a mental health day. Maybe sometimes we get so caught up in creating “the magic” that we forget its not worth sacrificing our mental and emotional well-being.

Whatever your December looks like right now, please know you are enough. You are doing the best you can. And you deserve some peace in this season.

Cozy Christmas living room decor

While I was plopped on our couch soaking up a rare moment of quiet, I felt so grateful for our living room that we decorated for Christmas last week. There’s just something healing about home.

And despite all of the work it’s taken to get this living room to this point over the years, I felt that reward right when I needed it.

You absolutely do not need to strive for the perfectly decorated living room (our chairs frequently have laundry from the dryer piled on them and toys scattered around the floor).

But if you want some ideas to spruce yours into a cozy, restful retreat away from the stress of the world, here are a few with tips to stretch your Christmas decor all the way through winter.

Cozy Christmas Living Room Decor Ideas

tinsel Christmas tree, limewashed brick fireplace, and mantel decorated with garland

1. Bust out the thick blankets

When it comes to styling cozy Christmas living room decor, I always lean into warm, winter vibes as much as possible rather than decor that is Christmas-specific.

A few thick, neutral faux fur or sweater knit throw blanket always do the trick. If colors like red or green work in a room year-round, I’ll throw in a blanket of that color. Otherwise, for colors that only make sense at Christmas, I steer clear of them.

sweater knit blanket on leather chair in living room decorated for Christmas

2. Use pillows that work for winter not just Christmas

Same with throw pillows as blankets, I use neutral pillows or pillows that work with the room itself, not just our Christmas decor. A neutral color palette will stretch your dollar and your time all the way through winter after the tree is gone.

Using pillow covers instead of entire pillows is much more cost-effective, plus I can more easily wash them in cold/flu season. I love using pillows with warm textiles and textures like tweed, wool, thick cable knit, faux fur, etc.

Tip: See how to mix and match throw pillows here.

neutral winter pillows for Christmas on couch

3. Every coffee table deserves a candle

We don’t burn very many candles in our house since I’m cautious about fire hazards (flameless candles for life here), but the one place I love having a real one in our living room is the coffee table where I can light it and enjoy it after the kids go to bed.

candle and winter decor on coffee table

4. Fill vases with winter greenery rather than red berries or flowers

The perk about adding pine, juniper, cypress, or cedar branches to a vase in the living room is it can stay right on our coffee table through the winter after the Christmas tree comes down. So I leave out any holly branches, poinsettias, or red amaryllis flowers.

If it can reduce storage and time, why not? If you do love flowers, try white roses mixed in instead like I did for our dining room table Christmas centerpiece.

coffee table with Christmas decor

5. Mismatch the stockings

If you can’t find an entire set of matching stockings on clearance, get different style stockings in similar colors instead.

I love how it looks a little vintage and eclectic style that way. Plus, if you ever have an addition to the family, it’ll be easier to add to your existing set rather than trying to hunt for ones in stores that match.

6. Double up garland on the mantel

For super full, fluffy mantel garland, layer two garlands to make it look like one as a focal point on the fireplace in the room. I just use heavy Command hooks, but make sure you let the hook adhesive set for an hour before hanging the garland to prevent it from falling.

I use floral wire to attach juniper picks, ribbon, or orange garland. To add lights, I weave in battery operated lights I can set on a timer.

Christmas mantel decor using garland, dried oranges, and blue ribbon

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7. Hang wreaths on windows

For years, we’ve hung wreaths on our windows using some Command hooks and ribbon to add a little extra holiday charm. IKEA usually has ones the perfect size for windows at around $10 each.

TIP: See how to hang wreaths on windows here.

marble top coffee table with Christmas greenery in vase, bowl of jingle bells, and candle

8. You can use bells basically anywhere

We keep a set of 8 bells in our holiday decoration stash, and every year they end up somewhere different in our house because they work basically anywhere.

Use antique style bells as decorative objects on end tables, coffee tables, nightstands, or buffet tables. Hang them from ribbon on garland or on a wreath. Tie them to Christmas presents for a little vintage character. Or hang them as ornaments on the tree.

After Christmas I just remove the bells around the house and keep some of the greenery in the vases.

Christmas end table decor

9. Turn the tree collar upside-down

I just discovered this year that turning our Christmas tree collar upside-down makes it look like a real basket! Have we been doing tree collars wrong all this time?

Our tree stand is slightly too wide to do it this way, so we just have the back of the collar slightly open to make it fit.

tinsel Christmas tree and fireplace in a living room

10. Incorporate homemade ornaments

Hang dried orange slices (bonus points that they’re biodegradable) or do a DIY ornament craft with the kids.

If you have lots of family ornaments made over the years at school or picked up as souvenirs on vacations, just mix in a coordinating set of colored ornament balls with some tree ribbon, and the tree looks instantly polished.

Christmas tree decorated with tinsel, ball ornaments, and dried oranges

11. Add tinsel to the tree if you don’t have many ornaments

I love the look of a plain tree with just a $10 pack of tinsel on it. (We used a mix of gold and silver on ours.) It’s so simple but absolutely twinkles.

If you don’t have a big collection of ornaments, the tinsel can handle the job all on its own as tree filler.

pinkie and blue boy art beside a Christmas tree

12. Let ribbon and gift wrap set a color scheme

If you have to buy wrapping paper anyway, you might as well buy paper that matches and works with the rest of your decor, right?

I usually dig through my scrap ribbon or take leftovers from our Christmas tree ribbon to use on gift boxes.

tinsel Christmas tree with blue and white wrapped presents

13. Display some Christmas art

I love displaying a $3 art image on our Samsung Frame TV. But even if you don’t have a Frame TV, you can search “TV Christmas Art” on YouTube as a display on your TV during gatherings or on Christmas morning while you’re opening presents.

Check out this trick to display art on a regular Smart TV too.

Christmas fireplace decor with limewashed brick and tinsel Christmas tree in living room

Living Room Sources

white sofa with neutral pillows and vintage rug with Christmas decor on coffee table

Got any other cozy Christmas living room decorating ideas you’d add to the list for this holiday season? There are plenty more, but those are definitely the top go-tos in my book.

Christmas tree with tinsel in a living room and dog sitting

So now the Christmas gift shopping is done, the house is decorated, and a packed full calendar stretches before us for the next two weeks.

Bring it on! …after a couch nap though because I think we all need it at this point in the Christmas season, right?

More Christmas Decorating Ideas

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30 Comments

  1. I totally get where you’re coming from and agree wholeheartedly. Your posts are always amazing and heartfelt. I’ve never commented on a site like this, but felt compelled to here. Most of the stress we feel on any given day is self-inflicted. But whether it’s good stress or bad stress,
    it doesn’t matter. Our bodies don’t understand good or bad. They just understand stress. People who love us don’t expect perfection, they expect presence. They want us present in their lives to laugh and love and cry with them. The holidays are stressful, like my Thanksgiving where my house got volunteered even though I’m in the middle of remodeling. I could’ve ordered pizza and everyone would’ve been just as happy, but instead I cooked and cleaned and wore myself out and barely got to sit to actually visit anyone. No one expected that or even wanted it, but it was a pressure I placed on myself. The season is about love and family and being thankful for what we have, whether it’s a mansion, a small home, or a one bedroom apartment. No one expects us to have a perfectly curated home. They don’t come over for design advice, they come over to have a great time with people who mean the world to them. I don’t feel like design blogs are evil, but I do find they tend to give people the false idea that some people have perfect, beautifully designed homes 24/7 and that it’s a goal to strive for. They don’t see the behind the scenes, rooms torn apart for months, mold in the walls, stains on the sofa and mud tracked across the newly cleaned carpet. They don’t see the after-your-daughter-comes-over-and-makes-three-batches-of-cookies-at-once-and-every-surface-in-your-kitchen-including- cabinet-doors-is-sticky-or-has-dirty-dishes-piled-on-them kitchen photos. They see the everything-is-put-away-or-hidden-in-a-cabinet-so-my-kitchen-looks-perfectly-organized-and-spotless kitchen photos. We need more reality and less staged reality. We need the pics of kids’ chocolate icing creations on pristine white walls and trash from a properly chastised puppy strewn across the floor. And the reason we need these things isn’t because we don’t understand everyone has these moments, it’s because we need to understand we’re all human and that isn’t what’s important. What’s important is our mental health and our families well-being. What’s important are the people we love and who love us, not in spite of our faults, but because those faults are part of who we are. We need to give ourselves permission to cry, to have a stained couch or to order pizza so we have time to visit those who mean the world to us. But we need to make sure we make ourselves as important as we make others

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  2. Hi Lauren – Your home decorated for Christmas looks beautiful – down to the smallest detail. I understand how overwhelming it can be to get it all done, plus everything else on your plate this time of year. Robert sounds like a great guy.

    Now that you have decorated, time to chill and relax and enjoy the magic of the season and your two little cuties who must be getting pretty excited as Christmas is getting close. When you look back at this time when your girls are grown, you won’t remember the decor, but you will remember how you made sure to make the holidays special for them. XO

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  3. Thank you for this post and reminding us all that as moms we really do too much during this season and lose sight of what Christmas is really about…take care of yourself and Happy Christmas!

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  4. Girl, I feel you! I’ve been crying every day since Thanksgiving…just overwhelmed with it all! Prayers for you and for all of us overachievers!!

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  5. I think we’re our own worst enemies in that we think we’re not enough. One day we wake up with the knowledge that we are good enough and always were. We just didn’t know it. Be kind to yourself. Merry Christmas to each of you.

    Reply