About

Holiday decorating that respects the home you already have.

Pinterest is full of holiday decorating advice, and almost none of it matches the house you actually live in.

Drive through any neighborhood on December 20th and you'll see what we mean. Wreaths sized for a two-story colonial swallowed by a tiny Cape Cod door. The deep-porch lantern setup made for a Craftsman crowding a ranch entryway. Multi-color bulbs flashing across a modern minimalist's clean lines. Each of those decisions probably started on the same Pinterest board. The board didn't ask what kind of house anyone owned.

Holiday Home Ideas was built around that one missing question. Match the decorating to the architecture and most of the work is already done. Try to override the architecture and you'll spend a lot of money on something that never quite looks right.

What you'll find here

Three things, mostly.

The decorating guides start with house style: ranch, two-story colonial, Cape Cod, Craftsman, Victorian, modern minimalist. That's the first thing that should change the answer, and it's the thing most decorating writing skips. If your home isn't on that list yet, it will be.

The free tools cover the practical questions. How many feet of lights does your roofline actually need? What size tree fits your living room? What's a realistic budget for a fresh decorating year? Each one runs in your browser, no email gate.

And there's a growing guide to how Christmas is actually celebrated outside the United States. The Yule Lads in Iceland, the Caga Tió in Catalonia, KFC on Christmas Eve in Japan, fireworks during the Philippines' Misa de Gallo. The holiday gets stranger and more beautiful the more places you look.

A few things this site believes

  • The house is already telling you what to do.

    A Victorian wants abundance. A Cape Cod wants restraint. A Craftsman wants natural materials. Most of the bad decorating decisions in any neighborhood come from someone trying to override their house instead of working with it.

  • Three things you actually thought about beat thirty you didn't.

    True on a mantel, a tree, a front door, a dining table. Christmas is one of the last places in interior design where the default is still “add more.” It doesn't have to be.

  • Decorations should still work in ten years.

    If you buy a wreath this year and use it in 2034, that's a win. If your wreath looks dated by 2028, somebody overcharged you for it. Traditional palettes age. Trend palettes don't. We write with that in mind.

  • Nothing here is paywalled.

    No tool asks for an email before showing you the answer. No article hides behind a signup. We've used too many sites that hold a basic answer hostage for a lead and would rather not be one.

  • Christmas is bigger than the version you grew up with.

    There are dozens of national takes on the holiday, and most of them have traditions an American Christmas doesn't. They're worth getting curious about. Some of them are more interesting than what you've seen all your life.

Who writes Holiday Home Ideas

Brian

Founder & Editor

Brian is the founder and editor of Holiday Home Ideas. He started the site after one too many Decembers spent watching good decorating advice ignore the thing that matters most — the house you actually live in. He writes the decorating and house-style guides, builds the tools by hand, and tries the ideas on his own home before they go up here.

Holiday Home Ideas Editorial Team

Editorial

The Holiday Home Ideas editorial team researches and fact-checks the reference guides — the histories, the comparisons, the how-much-does-it-cost breakdowns, and the buying guides — so the numbers, traditions, and recommendations here hold up.

Have a question, a correction, or a house style you'd like to see covered? Get in touch — or email admin@holidayhomeideas.com.

New this year

See your home decorated for Christmas.

The newest tool on the site: upload a photo of a room or the front of your house and see it decorated for Christmas in about a minute, in a style that suits the home you already have. Free to try.

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