How to Make Your Small Space Festive: 20 Cute Apartment Décor Ideas For The Holidays

It doesn’t matter if your living space is small; the right holiday decorating ideas can help you make your apartment feel festive.

The key to cute apartment décor — whether you’re decorating for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, or New Year’s Eve — is to maximize all of the spaces you have. In a small apartment, this space includes everything from your front door to your back balcony.

Try these 20 simple holiday décor ideas to brighten your small space this season: 

Holiday decorating ideas for small spaces 

1.  Decorate your door 

Create a cute Christmas welcome by hanging a simple wreath on your apartment door or wrapping up your door like a giant holiday gift. This easy Christmas decoration idea can brighten up doors inside your apartment — think bedrooms and bathroom doors. You can also add a little bling to your wreath by adding a string of battery-powered lights.

2.  Hang the mistletoe

Don’t forget the traditional holiday decorating idea of hanging mistletoe in the doorway to catch a kiss from your significant other. Choose between a traditional mistletoe ball, a simple sprig, or try foraging your own for this year’s festivities if you live in the southern U.S. where mistletoe grows.

3.  Christmas trees for small spaces

Oh, mini Christmas tree! It doesn’t matter how small your space is; a Christmas tree is likely to be a key element of your apartment Christmas décor. A mini three-foot ‘entryway’ tree perches perfectly in an apartment corner, while a 5-foot slim tree feels tall and full without taking up a bunch of real estate. Alternatively, if you have no floor space at all, add a tiny table-top tree to your TV stand, dresser, or coffee table.

4.  Alternative Christmas trees for small spaces

If you want the spirit of a tree but don’t have space, hang a wall tree. You could also go a really alternative route by reusing a packing palette to paint and decorate your own Christmas tree.

5.  Light up your houseplants

Light up your houseplant collection with mini, battery-operated, or USB twinkle lights. You can even hang lightweight and mini ornaments from your bigger houseplants to serve as a cute Christmas tree replacement. 

6. Swap out your decorative pillows

For a simple apartment Christmas décor transformation, switch out the throw pillow covers on your sofa or bed to give your apartment a cozy Christmas feel. Add a blue or silver color pop to your couch for celebrating Hanukkah’s festival of lights, or traditional yellow, green, and red African print pillows for Kwanzaa.

7. Collect and display your Christmas cards

One free and easy Christmas décoration option is to display all the holiday cards that get delivered to your mailbox during the season. Hang a wide festive ribbon on a wall, door, cupboard, or around a door frame. As new cards arrive in the post, affix each one to your growing display.

8. Set the table

Prepare a centerpiece for your holiday table—a poinsettia, gingerbread house, a set of mini Christmas trees, a menorah, or a bowl of ornament balls in your favorite colors like yellow, green, and red to celebrate Kwanzaa. You can even keep the table set with your favorite holiday dishes for daily use—another easy-to-do idea for cute apartment décor.

9. Deck the walls and halls 

Hallways in small spaces provide a perfect blank canvas for creative and cute apartment decor. Brighten up your hall space with easy Christmas decorations like a banner, or your Christmas card display.

10.  Snowy or starry ceilings 

Don’t forget the ceiling! Hang lights, snowflakes, colored balls, or a Starry Garland from your ceiling. This easy decorating idea works well to brighten up entryways and apartment hallways.

11.  Light the candles

Candles are always an easy Christmas decoration, and also perfect for lighting up your small space for Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. Make your own menorah by combining candles, or purchase a mini menorah for a micro space.

12.  Dress up your dresser

Add a little cute Christmas to your bedroom by dressing up your dresser with some simple décorlike matching stockings, a stack of holiday books, or some peppermint scented craft candles.

13.  Don’t forget the bathroom

Give a splash of cheer to every room in the house, including the bathroom. Hang lights on the mirror and add a holiday hand towel. You can even dress up your shower curtain with a little ornamentation!

14.  Create a countdown calendar

Advent calendars can be both a festive decoration as well as a functional way to count down the days to Christmas. Create your own—like a paper chain hanging from the ceiling, or packages hanging from coats pegs on the wall. Alternatively, purchase a prepared calendar full of your favorite things, like a tea advent calendar you can hang as a decoration in your kitchen.

15.  Dress up the kitchen

Don’t forget to decorate the room where the cookie baking will happen with holiday bows on your kitchen cupboards. Every trip to the kitchen will feel like unwrapping a gift!

16.  Light up the windows

Dressing up your windows is one of the easiest apartment Christmas décor wins. Try Curtain lights for a simple-to-hang solution and the brightest bang for your buck. You can get lights in blue and white for Hanukkah!

17.  Garland the guardrails  

Give your balcony some bling by wrapping the rails with evergreen clippings and twinkle lights. You don’t need a big outdoor space to show off your spirit. If you live in a place where it’s not freezing in December, add some cozy plaid throw blankets and candles to create a sitting space to enjoy a silent night or two.

18.  Bring on the hygge

Make your small space feel cozy with Scandinavian style apartment holiday decor. Fill up a large clear quart-size glass jar or set of jars or matching or different sizes with twinkle lights. This simple decoration is also the perfect way to repurpose the strings of holiday lights that you don’t want to untangle.

19.  Memories of holidays past 

Create a photo collage of images of friends and family from holidays past. Place them in frames on a dresser or coffee table, mount them on the wall in the shape of a wreath or tree, or simply string them from clips on a set of miniature twinkle lights.

20.  Music in the air 

If you’re a vinyl aficionado, an easy décor idea is to set your holiday records out on a display stand. Plus, playing holiday music on repeat is one of the easiest ways to pump up the spirit of celebration without crowding out your physical space.

Bottom Line

It doesn’t matter if your space is small. If you put a few of these cute holiday decorating ideas into practice, you can quickly fill a home of any size with joy, fun, and cheer.