A Christmas tree in a small apartment usually means moving a chair into the bedroom for a month, and then finding somewhere to keep the tree for the other eleven. Lots of people skip it, and the apartment can still feel like Christmas.
What works instead is decorating the few places you actually look at every day. In most small apartments that’s the front door, the TV stand, the windows, a wall or two, and the coffee table. Get those right and you won’t miss the tree much.
Every idea below has a rough size, so you can tell whether it’ll fit, and a note on where it goes afterward.
By the front door
The door is the first thing you see coming home, and it takes no floor space at all.
1. A lit garland around the door frame. Run a 6-foot pre-lit garland (on Amazon) up one side of the frame and across the top, held with removable adhesive hooks (on Amazon). Battery lights are easiest if there’s no outlet nearby. In January it coils into a bag and slides under the bed.
2. Three small wreaths instead of one big one. Hang three 12-inch wreaths (on Amazon) in a vertical line on the wall beside the door. Mixing them (one pine, one eucalyptus, one with berries) looks planned without much effort. They take up about 14 by 40 inches of wall and stack in one box with tissue between them.
3. A tray on whatever’s already there. If you have a shoe cabinet or small console by the door, put a 14-inch tray on it and arrange a few things inside: a candle, a couple of bottle-brush trees (on Amazon), a pinecone. The tray keeps it looking like one arrangement rather than clutter, and you can lift the whole thing off when you need the surface.
On the TV stand
You look at it every evening, so it’s worth a little effort.
4. Garland along the front edge. Lay a garland along the top of the console and let it dip slightly in the middle. Add a string of warm-white fairy lights (on Amazon) if it isn’t pre-lit. It frames the TV rather than competing with it. It can share a storage box with the door garland.
5. A few bottle-brush trees. Three of them at different heights, around 6, 8 and 10 inches, grouped at one end. They give you the green without any of the commitment of a tree, and they fit in a shoebox afterward.
6. Stockings on the edge of the console. No mantel needed. Small adhesive hooks along the front of the TV stand or a bookshelf hold stockings fine, and they fold flat into a drawer for the rest of the year.
In the windows
Windows give you a lot for very little, and they look good from outside too.
7. Curtain lights. These are strings of lights that hang in vertical strands. Put a set sized for one window (on Amazon) across your main window with suction-cup hooks. At night they light the whole room; during the day you barely notice them. If you only do one thing on this list, I’d make it this one. A typical set covers a window about 3 by 4 feet and packs into a sandwich bag.
8. A wreath hung inside the window. Use a suction hook (on Amazon) so the front of the wreath faces out. From inside you see the back, which still looks fine, especially with a few lights wound through it. An 18 to 24-inch wreath is about right for most windows.
9. A paper star lantern. A folding paper star (on Amazon), 12 to 20 inches across, hung in the window or from the ceiling near it. It’s inexpensive, glows nicely with a bulb inside, and folds flat to store behind a bookshelf.
On the walls
All of these use zero floor space.
10. A tree drawn on the wall. Outline a tree shape with wide washi tape (on Amazon), or with fairy lights held up by small adhesive clips, and hang a few light ornaments from it with mini clothespins (on Amazon). Around 3 feet wide by 5 feet tall looks like a tree from across the room, and washi tape peels off without leaving marks.
11. Swap your art for December. Take two or three prints out of the frames you already have and put Christmas ones in: old Santa illustrations, winter plants, a simple lettered print. Same frames, same nails. Printable downloads make this almost free.
12. A fabric advent calendar. A felt pocket calendar (on Amazon) on one hook, about 18 by 24 inches of wall, and something to open every day. It folds into a drawer in January.
On the coffee table
Keep it to one tray so the table still works as a table.
13. One tray, one arrangement. A 16-inch tray with a flameless candle (on Amazon), a small lantern and a few pinecones or ornaments. When people come over and you need the space, you move the whole tray at once. Store it packed exactly as it is and next year’s setup takes two minutes.
14. Something that smells like Christmas. Three small bud vases (on Amazon) with pine sprigs, eucalyptus or cinnamon sticks. Christmas tree lots often have bags of trimmings they’ll give away if you ask. The vases are useful the rest of the year, and the greenery goes in the compost.
15. A runner and two candlesticks. If you have even a small dining table or a desk that doubles as one, a narrow runner (on Amazon) and a pair of taper candlesticks are enough to make it feel like a holiday table. The runner rolls up into a drawer.
Where to start
If you’re short on time, do the curtain lights in the window and the garland by the door. Each takes under half an hour and they change the room more than anything else here. Add the rest as you find things you like.