5 DIY Christmas decorations for your student home

For all those Christmas lovers out there, the excitement doesn’t end with last week’s article on advent calendars! The merriment continues and will build and build as Christmas fast approaches. What better way to liven up this dull and horribly wet weather by physically surrounding yourself with Christmas decorations? It seems only reasonable that this holiday of cheer comes at possibly the most depressing time of year, so I say take advantage of this holiday as much as we can.

Creating your own decorations is a super fun and easy way to get your mind off work and break up the tireless flow of studying. Additionally, focusing on something other than readings or essays will allow your mind to be taken somewhere else and relax. Small additions to your student home can really go a long way and here are some of easiest decorations to make:

Tinsel, tinsel, tinsel! Nothing can brighten up a room more than some sparkle and glitter. These can be found almost anywhere —Tesco, Sainsbury’s, you name it — and are cheap. Grab a few in red, silver, gold and put them around the house; wrap them around your stairs, hang them along the doorframe or even hang them all across your wall — with any fairy lights you have.

DIY snowflakes. Although I am no artist myself, these are incredibly easy to do. Take any scrap paper and fold the A4 piece into four so it makes four squares. Cut these squares apart and then fold each square in half diagonally twice and then into a third and then into another third.

Once all this folding is done, cut the top off at an angle and then shape your snowflake by cutting in shapes into the sides! Once done, stick them all over the place like kitchen cupboards etc.

Better instructions can be found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-6-Pointed-Paper-Snowflakes/.

White/silver spray paint! There are so many things you could do with this but to follow on from the snowflakes you just made, you could save a few to use as templates. You can use the snowflake template to spray the white/silver on to the surface and create more snowflakes on your windows. It seems a bit over the top but it takes a whole five minutes and looks amazing!

Reindeer doormat. So, you might be thinking, this sounds a bit weird — but trust me, it’s cute. If you can be bothered to make reindeer templates, go ahead, but I’d opt for something a lot easier. Buy some reindeer cookie cutters — any Christmas themed ones, in fact — and use whatever spray paint you have left to spray the shapes onto your bare doormats! It really adds character and doesn’t require much effort, so by the end of the year when you have a black doormat, it won’t hurt that much.

Mini Christmas tree. Whilst this isn’t necessarily a DIY decoration, it’s a simple way of adding that Christmas spirit to your house. Mini decorated table-top Christmas trees can be found at any Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s.