Holiday Decorating Tips- How to Avoid Overconsumption, Not Compare & Enjoy the Season

The holidays are meant to be a time of joy and connection, but it’s so easy to get caught up in the pressure to have the most perfectly decorated home or keep up with what everyone else is doing. This year, I’m focusing on a new approach: embracing mindful, intentional holiday decorating that prioritizes personal joy over perfection and sustainability over excess. In this post, I’ll share practical tips that are helping me strike a balance between creating a festive home and avoiding the pitfalls of overconsumption. Join me as I dive into ways to make your holiday space truly yours—full of beauty, meaning, and seasonal magic without the comparison.

Tip 1: Get Inspiration from Social Media, But Don't Feel Like You Need to Go as Hard as They Do

I have had a love-hate relationship with social media over the years. I love it for the endless amount of information and ideas, but I can also hate it for those same reasons since sometimes those endless options turn into overwhelm and feeling like I'm not doing enough. What I'm trying to remind myself of is that social media is neutral- it's neither good nor bad; what I can control is who and what I'm following, the content I consume and my mindset.

It's really easy to see all these extravagant holiday displays on Instagram and Pinterest and think we need to buy more stuff to create a magical holiday season for our family and friends, but we can accomplish this without blowing the budget.

If you're like me, take a step back, put the phone down and remind yourself of something. The extravagant holiday displays you see and the products they use have most likely been gifted to them by the company, collected over the years or perhaps their income is higher so they can afford to ball out. None of that is bad or should make you feel less than, it just is what it is.

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Here are several ways I'm planning on adding some holiday vibes around the Tudor casa this year without blowing my whole holiday budget on fake Santas:

Candles

Scent is an amazing way to transform your home during the holiday season, it really is crazy how smelling something can bring us back to a moment in time. The only candles we use in the house now are from Grow- they're non-toxic so no hormone-disrupting chemicals up in here. Here are some of my faves:

Fall Scents:

• Grow Fragrance- Pear Cider - This is my favorite fall scent from Grow. Don't let the name "Pear Cider" fool you, this smells like fall in a candle- I promise.

• Grow Fragrance- Autumn Heirloom - If you like the freshly baked pumpkin pie type scents, this one is for you. It's lighter than Pear Cider but will make your kitchen smell like you're cooking something pumpkin-y if the oven.

• Grow Fragrance- Ginger Pumpkin - This is another good, classic Fall scent. It smells exactly like the scent is named, if ginger and pumpkin got together and had a baby- it would be this candle.

Christmas/Winter Scents:

• Grow Fragrance- Palo Santo Pine - If you love the smell of a freshly cut Christmas tree, you'll love this candle. It smells just like the real thing and is my go-to for the holiday season.

• Grow Fragrance- Holiday Hearth - This candle smells like all the typical Christmas smells wrapped into one. It's more dimensional than the Palo Santo Pine, a bit more spicy but still so cozy and comforting.

Music & Movies

I think it's hard to not get into the holiday spirit when stations start playing Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You.

Having your favorite Fall/Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas music and movies on in the background while you're decorating your home or just going about your business will help to get you in the spirit without breaking the budget.

Here are some of my favorite playlists and movies that get us into the holiday spirit. This list will continue to grow because there are plenty of movies I haven't seen yet and new ones coming out each year. I'm just sharing the movies and shows I've seen that I actually like.

Halloween Movies

• Hocus Pocus

• Halloween Town

• Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire

• Casper

• The Haunted Mansion

• The Curse of Bridge Hallow

• Hubie Halloween

• Scream

• Scary Movie

• Boo! A Madea Halloween

• Hallmark/Lifetime (They always come out with new themed holiday movies)

Halloween Shows

• Ghost Adventures

• Most Terrifying Places

• Most Terrifying Places in America

• Paranormal Caught on Camera

• Celebrity Ghost Stories

• Goosebumps (The OG episodes)

• Stranger Things (Second season is during Halloween)

• Wednesday

• Devil in Ohio

• Sabrina the Teenage Witch

• Boy Meets World (Halloween episodes)

Halloween Music

• Spotify Halloween Sounds (Spooky sounds to play for trick or treating, haunted maze, etc.)

• Spotify Halloween Party

Thanksgiving Movies

• Turkey Drop

• Hallmark/Lifetime Holiday Themed Movies

Thanksgiving Shows

• Thanksgiving Football Games (Let's Go Cowboys!)

• Friends Thanksgiving Episodes

Christmas Movies

• The Santa Claus Movies

• Holidate

• Hallmark/Lifetime Movies

• Candy Cane Lane

• The Polar Express

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas

• A Bad Moms Christmas

• Home Alone Movies

• Elf

• Four Christmases

• Love Hard

• Operation Christmas Drop

• A Gift Wrapped Christmas

• A Madea Christmas

Christmas Music

• Spotify Christmas Playlist

Food

We all gotta eat right?

Right.

Instead of fighting the colder weather this year, I'm working on embracing the season I'm currently in, and one way to do that is the food I'm making. Fall and Wintertime is all about those warm, comforting recipes.

Here's the link to my Cozy Recipes Pinterest board- take a look and follow if you want. I only have a few recipes on there now because I'm saving recipes to that board I've tried, and we really like. As we continue to try new fall/winter recipes I'll add the good ones to this board.

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Tip 2: Switch the Focus from Quantity to Quality

Since I'm on this new mission to be more intentional of what I spend my money on, focusing more on quality over quantity, I'm learning to choose pieces I truly love. I believe investing smartly in pieces that are timeless and can be used in different ways each year to get the most bang for my buck. In my opinion, nothing beats shopping in person. I love seeing how creative stores can get with their displays and you're able to see the quality of something in real life- this is how you can start training your eye to see the difference between quality and tacky.

If you're not sure where to start looking, below is a list of my suggestions on where to look, where to proceed with caution (remember that discerning eye, or if you're still developing yours, bring a friend) and where to avoid. Don't take offense if you love shopping for holiday decor at the Dollar Store, I know they're cheap. Last year, I spent so much money there and now I'm like "Why did I do this?". It all of looks like it definitely came from the Dollar Store, and I would rather have used that money towards one or two quality pieces that I'll love for years to come rather than spending it on not so nice pieces.

Stores to look for investment/quality pieces:

• Pottery Barn

• Crate & Barrel

• Arhaus

• Frontgate

• Balsam Hill

• Ballard Designs

• Local Home Decor Boutiques

• Local Nursery/Florist Shops

• Etsy

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Proceed With Caution:

• HomeGoods/TJ Maxx

• Hobby Lobby

• Kirkland's

• Michaels

• Joann Fabrics

• Thrift Stores

• Amazon

• Target

• Wal-Mart

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Stores to avoid:

• The Dollar Store

• Five Below

Tip 3: Keep Your Base Seasonal Themed, Leaving Room for Individual Holiday Decor

I feel like this tip is mainly useful for the Fall holidays since us holiday decorators like to start decorating in early fall, then change it up for Halloween and last but not least, Thanksgiving.

For example, in my entry way this year, I decorated this space so it looked great all year round, but I could easily spruce it up for the holidays. In early Fall, I changed out the white orchid I had in the pot for some faux Fall branches from Pottery Barn. Then for Halloween, I kept the branches but added some creepy black crows. After Halloween is done, removed the crows and we're back to rocking the Fall branches until it's time to decorate for Christmas.

I guess this is kind of like a layering technique you'd use when you're getting dressed and the weather is going to be all over the place. You have your base on, then depending on how cold it gets you layer up from there. Same with this, keep your base simple but still seasonal allowing you to add in your individual holiday decor and then easily removing it once that holiday has passed.

Tip 4: Keep Your Priorities Straight

This is one I'm really working on right now. My husband and I bought our new-build home last August and we have so many ideas of projects we want to do and pieces we want to buy. So, when I start thinking about decorating for the holidays and I'm looking at the price tags of things, I need to keep in mind the bigger picture. While I'm shopping for holiday decor this year, I'm asking myself if this is something I really want, or would I rather use that money towards a piece or a project that we'll be able to enjoy all year long.

Tip 5: Know Yourself

So, I have this thing each late August/early September where I feel ready to whip out all my Fall/Halloween decor and immediately start decorating my house even though it's still 90 degrees outside. This year, I did save it all for early September, but I went too hard too quick on the Halloween decor inside my house. I loved it at first, but after a few weeks I started getting sick of it and wanted to take it down- so I did. Wasted time and money, but a lesson was learned.

The point with this tip is to know yourself- if you're like me and you're going to be over all the extra holiday decor in a couple weeks, way before the actual holiday is even here, maybe try delaying your decorating. However, if having your house covered in holiday decor makes you feel excited and energized and you never get it sick of it, let your freak flag fly and get started earlier. It's all about tuning out what's going on around you (like what influencers on social media are doing, neighbors, etc.) and learning what works best for you and your family.

As this holiday season starts to unfold, I'm working on trying to remember the true magic isn’t in how perfectly decorated our home is or how it measures up to others—it’s in the warmth, memories, and joy we create within it. By choosing intentional decorating, embracing what feels meaningful, and letting go of the pressure to overconsume or compare, we can enjoy a season that’s both beautiful and deeply fulfilling. I hope these tips inspire you to create a holiday space that feels true to you and brings happiness to your home. Here’s to a season filled with more joy, less stress, and moments that matter most