Decorate Your Staircase for Christmas

We are lucky enough to have a beautiful old staircase that is original to our old house. It’s actually a split staircase, so there are two flights of stairs that go up, then meet at a landing and one set that goes to the second floor. I showed some pictures of it here. {We still are working on replacing the rugs – blah}. And I’m lucky enough to get to decorate it every year for the holidays. This year white garland was a must! So today I wanted to show you how to decorate your staircase for Christmas, no matter how old or young it is, it can still look beautiful.

To get things started I strung up two pieces of white garland. These are from Joanns and have loops at the end that you can twist tie together. {See you can’t even tell where they join} Fiddle with the swag a little and you’ll get the perfect look, based on the length you need. To do this, I started at the left banister and fit it to the length needed to just graze the floor.

To attach these to the staircase I just use natural-colored twine. It blends in well with the wood and is nice and grippy, so it doesn’t fall or slip. Then I wind in the lights. Of course make sure the end that has to plug in is near the plug. I used one strand with white wire so it blends in and it provided the perfect holiday glow.

After that comes the fun part, accessories. This year I was in the mood for a natural look, with metallics since I always love a little bling to my decorating. This large box of ornaments was a clearance find last year and the glitter snowflakes are from Hobby Lobby. I just love those snowflakes! They come in every color, so I pretty much get a new one each season. The ribbon is actually from Ikea and is semi-sheer with little gold stars on it.

After the lights go on, wind some ribbon around the garland. I try to do it nice and loose, but make sure it is nestled inside the garland’s “branches” if your garland has them. If you know how long the garland and ribbon are, you can judge how tight or loose to wind the ribbon. It’s all your own preference. Since this ribbon is wired, I just tuck the end behind the garland at the bottom.

The garland was looking pretty good but the glitter snowflakes provide the perfect touch. Their gold color accents so nicely against the white branches and they pick up on the gold stars on the ribbon. I just tuck a few inside the branches, you don’t even have to tie them on or anything.

Now things are coming together! The bronze ornaments were next, but instead of hang them on individually, I wanted to try something different. To make clusters of ornaments, simply take some thicker wire, this is probably 18 gauge, and cut a long piece. Scissors will even work to cut wire, depending on how thick it is. Add a few ornaments, I always go for an odd number, just so they lay right. And twist the wire together to hold them in a cluster. Then you use the wire to wrap the clusters onto the garland. Super easy. No need to get fancy tools, just use what you have. If you have fishing line, or ribbon, that would work too.

For this garland set up I made four clusters or ornaments, to go on the tops of the swag parts.

There are tons of things you can add to the garland instead of ornaments. How about stockings, snowflakes, branches, wreaths or even something else?

And with that, your holiday garland is all done! Every year I always wonder how I’m going to create something new with the holiday decorations I already have, and it’s so easy to do once you get a little creative! I actually don’t buy a lot of decorations each year. As you can probably tell, I make a lot and I reuse a lot.

Here is the garland all decorated from my holiday home tour post.

And it lit up at night. We have the lights on a timer so I don’t even have to go over and plug them in everyday.

You can also see that we were in the middle of grasscloth-ing the walls while we were doing the holiday decorating. See that before and after post here. And that I finally got a mirror up on that back wall.

Have you ever decorated a staircase?

Think you now have some ideas?

This week I’ll be sharing more holiday decorating crafts and projects. And today is Dan’s birthday! One guess as to what I got him… tools! You know, a gift for him and me 🙂

P.S. Don’t forget to follow my daily fun and behind the scenes on Instagram.