It’s that time of year again, and the countdown to Christmas has already begun. The holidays are a joyous time. What better way to get into the spirit of Christmas than by decorating your dorm? Not only is it a great way to spend quality time with your roommate, but it’s also fun. Of course, decorating for the holidays can be expensive, but if you shop at the right places or choose to DIY for decorations, you won’t stretch your college budget. If you have lost track of time with the end of the semester and finals, and you still haven’t decorated, don’t worry. There are still two weeks until Christmas, and it’s never too late to show your holiday spirit. For our dorm, my roommate and I chose to decorate both outside and inside, but feel free to just pick one. We shopped at Target and Michaels for our decorations. At Target, we bought about half of our decorations from the dollar aisles. At Michaels, we only got a few things because it’s a little pricier.
On the outside of our door we hung a wreath that we bought at Target for $20. We got the tree and gingerbread ornaments from the dollar section of Target and personalized them to our liking. The tinsel and white and blue garland we found in the Christmas section for only $1-3. We also used an abundance of double-sided tape and command strips to keep everything on the door.
This countdown is a cute chalkboard we found for $1 at Target.
We bought these adorable mini stockings at Michaels for about $3 each. They have our first initials on them.
Just for fun I decided that the owl needed to get into the Christmas spirit too, so I bought him a mini Santa hat at Michaels for $2. The sign next to him was only $1 at Target.
We decided to decorate our own ornaments, so we bought clear ornaments that come in a variety of shapes from Michaels. My ornament was about $3. My roommate brought some acrylic paint and brushes from home.
We bought this pre-made gingerbread house from Target for only $9. It was already built and all we had to do was decorate, which is of course the best part.
We bought snowflake and candy cane Christmas lights that were battery powered so we didn’t have to face the struggle of locating an outlet. We hung them up with mini command strips. These light were a little pricey, ranging from $8-10, but they are really cute, especially at night when the snowflakes change colors.
These gel stickers from Target are a cheap and easy way to decorate. We put ours on our sink mirror and our window. These stickers were $1 each.
We also got a cute banner from Target. I love how it hangs over our window, and the colors are bright and fun. This was about $10.
I’ll admit that we may have spent a little too much money on decorations. Some thriftier solutions to save money are to make your own wreaths and banners. We could have also made the tree ourselves from construction paper. The convenience of buying decorations can be enticing, but DIY decorations are cost effective and fun. I have seen plenty of dorms with handmade decorations that look just as cute as store bought ones. No matter how you decide to decorate, just have fun and be creative!
By: Alisa Stone
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