A lot of Christmas decorating advice assumes you can hammer a nail wherever you like. If you rent, everything needs to come down in January without leaving a mark. Working within that often ends up looking better, not worse.

Walls, without holes

1. Stockings on adhesive hooks. Large removable hooks (on Amazon) along a mantel, or if there isn’t one, along the top of a bookshelf or a console. Use hooks rated for at least three pounds each; a filled stocking is heavier than it looks. Press the strip for thirty seconds when you put it up, and in January pull the tab straight down so it releases cleanly.

2. A washi tape tree. Wide tape (on Amazon), at least an inch, in green or green and gold. A vertical strip for the trunk, then horizontal strips getting shorter as you go up, and a paper star on top. It peels off in five minutes. Best on smooth painted walls, not brick or heavy texture.

3. Garland and wreaths on removable hooks. Clear hooks every 18 inches hold a garland across a doorway or around a mirror. Check the weight: a pre-lit faux garland can easily reach five pounds. For a wreath on the front door, use an outdoor-rated hook, and check whether your building allows door decorations.

4. A magnetic wreath hanger (on Amazon). Most apartment doors are metal. A magnet on each side holds the wreath with no adhesive at all. Test your door with a fridge magnet. If it’s wood, an over-the-door hook works just as well.

5. Boxes wrapped in peel-and-stick wallpaper. Wrap a few empty boxes in a holiday wallpaper pattern and stack them in a corner or under a console. It looks like a pile of presents, and it creates a decorating surface where there wasn’t one.

6. A tension rod (on Amazon). Wedged inside a window frame, a doorway or an open shelf, it gives you a place to hang a light curtain panel, garland or ornaments. Measure first; they only extend within a fixed range. Snug, not straining.

Let the furniture hold it

Decorations that sit on furniture move with you to the next apartment.

7. Small arrangements on tables. Three things of different heights on one surface: a small tray, a candle, a sprig of pine, one ornament.

8. Fairy lights through shelves. Wind a warm-white strand (on Amazon) through a bookshelf, around the TV console or along the back of open shelving. The furniture hides the wire. Use battery packs with timers so there are no cords running across the room.

9. A big basket. Fill it with pinecones, ornaments or rolled-up throws by the door or the couch. After Christmas it just holds something else.

10. Small bundles on chair backs. Faux greenery or pine sprigs about 6 inches long, tied to the dining chairs with wired ribbon. Nothing touches the walls at all.

Fabric

11. A runner or tablecloth. Thirty seconds to put on, thirty seconds to take off.

12. A holiday rug on top of yours. A smaller red, plaid or evergreen rug layered over your everyday one, or over carpet you didn’t choose. Roll it up in January.

Windows, balcony and air

13. Window clings (on Amazon). They stick to the inside of the glass with static alone and peel off without a trace. Kids like putting them up.

14. Lights on the balcony railing. Outdoor-rated warm-white lights held with zip ties or twist ties, which snip off cleanly. Some leases restrict balcony lights, so send a quick email to management first.

15. Scent. It touches nothing. A pine, cinnamon or balsam candle, or a reed diffuser or simmer pot if your building doesn’t allow open flames. One scent per room.