How To: Minimalist Christmas

Christmas is usually the time when maximalism reigns supreme, but if piles of presents, trees festooned with decorations and mountains of mince pies all leave you feeling a little overwhelmed, there’s another way. From foraging for decorations to eco-friendly present wrapping ideas and trees that don’t shed a thousand pine needles, here’s how to do a more natural, minimalist and Scandi-style Christmas yourself.

How To: Minimalist Christmas Decorating

The key to minimalist Christmas decorating is creative thinking. Natural and foraged materials are ideal to give your interior a beautiful and eco-friendly festive lift – take a country walk to collect fallen pine cones, branches, holly and ivy from the hedgerows and red berries for colour. Mix together your materials (with the help of chicken wire to anchor your installations in place) and then drape over mantlepieces, bookshelves or up stair rails.

Photo: Unsplash

For colour, dried orange slices on string are a creative way of adding texture to your decorative scheme, or to string on the Christmas tree.

How To: Dried Orange Christmas Decorations

What you’ll need

• 2-4 oranges
• Cloves
• Cinnamon sticks
• Twine, string or ribbon
• 2 x baking sheets
• Baking parchment

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 140C/120C fan
2. Cut your oranges into 1-2cm thick slices
3. Lay on a baking sheet lined with parchment
4. Add to the oven and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, turning halfway through
5. Leave to cool
6. Once cooled, thread twine or string through (depending on what you have around), and stud with cloves or tie in cinnamon sticks to finish

Ideas For Minimalist Present Wrapping

Each year in the UK, a massive 227,000 miles of wrapping paper is thrown away in the aftermath of Christmas. The good news is that recyclable materials make an ideal minimal base for wrapping, in addition to saving a few pennies. Newspaper, recyclable brown paper, or even hand-making your own designs by block printing with potatoes are all more sustainable and minimal ways of wrapping presents. Create a little finishing flourish with string or twine (in the place of ribbons), and sprigs of pine, ivy, holly and foraged pine cones, berries or feathers tucked under the bow.

Image courtesy of Anthropologie

Why not try your hand at the Japanese tradition of wrapping presents, furoshiki. Pieces of cloth are used to wrap gifts which can be passed on and used every Christmas, instead of using single-use wrapping paper that’s more wasteful. There are YouTube videos aplenty that will help you try out various stunning folding techniques. Furoshiki Gift Wrapping Cloth, £16, anthropologie.com

Minimalist Christmas Trees

Libra large rustic wooden Christmas tree, £120. olivias.com

Wooden Christmas trees have been gaining popularity as an alternative to real and artificial firs, and no wonder: not only are wooden trees ultra-chic (and save a lot of time hoovering up pine needles) but they’re also generally more eco friendly investment than other artificial trees, which are mostly made of carcinogen-producing PVC. Plus, if well-looked, a wooden tree can be used year after year. Our pick is Libra’s large rustic wooden tree, at 100 x 40 cm, for £120. Just add your favourite handmade decorations, and a string of twinkly fairylights.

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Minimalist Christmas Decorations

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