How to decorate your doors for Christmas?

Decorating your front door for Christmas is, as Polish people put it, a joyful struggle against the curse of abundance. Exciting ideas, clever solutions, interesting suggestions and captivating possibilities are aplenty.

However, we need to act with a head on our shoulders because it is very easy to overdo it and create a mishmash that we will not like as a whole. Before we start thinking about specific solutions, let's establish a few things.

• Who will do the decorating?
• How much time do we have to prepare the doors and the whole house?
• How does our house present itself?
• Do we have enough space for elaborate decorations?

If we are to decorate the house ourselves, we need to schedule time for this. It is also worth equipping ourselves with the right tools. What do we have in mind? It depends on the decorations planned. A bit of forethought: we do not need much preparation to tie a bow, but we do need a lot of it to make a wreath from scratch.

Creating complex decorations ourselves takes a lot of time. But if Christmas is just around the corner, even a shop-bought centrepiece will appear at the last moment. The more ambitious the plans, the more distant the deadline must be. And is there even a Christmas tree in the house yet? After all, besides the doors, we will also be decorating the windows. All this needs to be taken care of.

How our house presents itself is also important. If we have a lot of wood and raw bricks, let's go for green and red, warm and natural colours and lots of living plants. If our interiors are of more contemporary design, glazed and metallic, lights in vivid colours and a cheerful variety or, on the contrary, almost Spartan decorations will be better. Stubbornly traditional decorations in large numbers on a not-so-traditional background usually do not work.

Once we have decided on what we are doing, when we are doing it and what we are working with, we can get down to specifics.

Once we have an initial idea of what strategy we are adopting, it is worth asking ourselves whether we prefer a traditional front door for Christmas or if we would like to follow newer trends.

No worries, the answers here are not entirely mutually exclusive. Many traditional solutions are still fashionable. Let's start with these

The Christmas wreath is one of the most traditional options, with its roots in the early days of Christianity. Thanks to them, we will build a truly Christmassy atmosphere. The wreath brims with symbolism:

• the circular shape refers to the cycle of life and death, of constant renewal;
• the wreath itself is a symbol of victory - in this case: Christ over death;
• the twigs of conifers are a reference to the crown of thorns;
• dried fruit represents health and love;
• the blood-red fruit of the holly refers to Christ's wounds on the cross.

A little un-Christmassy? Perhaps, because early Christianity put much more emphasis on the issues of suffering and the struggle between good and evil.

The contemporary Christmas wreath on the exterior door is meant to be joyful. It usually represents a kind of mini Christmas tree, only slightly simplified.

A suggestion: it is a good idea to harmonise the aesthetics of the front door decoration and the Christmas tree.

A cheerful door wreath in this day and age will have:

• colourful ribbons and bows;
• gold and silver threads;
• artificial snow;
• various dried fruits; and pinecones and rowan;
• baubles, stars and strings of beads;
• lights and lamps.

These are, of course, only suggestions and by no means a complete list. It all depends on our creativity. All the more so as we can also use unusual materials to decorate doors and windows.

Inserts made of felt or wool, but also other materials, have recently become very fashionable. There may be something made of glass, as long as it is carefully and securely installed, so that our Christmas decorations are completely safe for our youngest family members.

It is not without significance that we can prepare wreaths ourselves. Christmas decorations that the whole family works on are the most enjoyable.

The wreath is one of the most popular Christmas decorations, and its versatility makes it suitable for PVC, wooden, steel and aluminium doors. This type of Christmas ornament can also be an idea worth considering for decorating the entrance to our company or embellishing shop windows.

Tying a bow is probably the easiest way to make an exterior door, as well as an interior door, look truly festive with almost no effort on our part. It is not a minimal option at all. It is a nod to wonderfully efficient simplicity.

There are two basic types of a bow to choose from here, which will decorate our door beautifully:

• bows attached to the door;
• bows tied on the door.

We can make the first of these options ourselves. We simply need to buy such a bow or tie it from the ribbons we already have on hand and then attach it to the door.

Attachable bows from the store usually have a special glue or clip, just like bows to attach to presents. If we have set about creating them ourselves, we will have to devise our method of fixing them. Double-sided adhesive tape should do the job.

We should remember that a bow for an external door does not have to be attached directly. For example, let's tie the ribbon on a wreath, which will solve the dilemma of how to fix it. Create composite decorations made of a wreath or garland with a bow. It is smart!

Tied bows wrap around the door leaf. They turn it into an enormous gift and are very eye-catching. They do, however, require some effort to make. And they need a large leaf to look good. In practice, they usually work better as a door accessory for flats in multi-family buildings. Alas, bows soiled in the winter snow slush will lose much of their charm.

Let's start by defining what a garland is, and let's do it in a slightly diverting way: a garland is a chain taken off the Christmas tree that can go just about anywhere. That includes your Christmas door, which could prove a great idea.

Decorating your front door with a garland has three main advantages:

• it is easy to make;
• it yields stunning results;
• it allows something perfect to be matched to every door and every façade.

The garland is also, in a sense, an unrolled Christmas garland for the door. It is usually not as flashy as Christmas tree chains and is more reminiscent of the garlands themselves.

In the classic version, it is a green ribbon winding around a door, rather sparingly decorated. In the current chic form, the garland is decorated with anything that comes to mind: ribbons, baubles, artificial snow, dried fruit, beads and more. Trends suggest that it should be hung not only on the door frame. The garland should wind in a more elaborate composition around it. In such an approach, it clings to the wall and lolls more or less freely.

The internet is currently under the spell of garlands made of light. These consist of transparent LED tubes richly illuminating the doorway with a gentle light requiring minimal power.

Another option for light garlands is twisting strings with LED lights in the form of illuminating dots. Using them, we can create, for example, a golden chain with a captivating radiant aura.

Although the Christmas garland is a starkly traditional decoration, strongly illuminated arrangements are better suited to modern architecture.

When choosing a garland, we need to make sure the size is right. With external doors, our wiggle room is limited, and a chain that is too long will not be able to hide or twine cleverly anywhere. Let's measure twice and buy once.

The use of copious amounts of light in Christmas decorations is a contemporary trend. Illumination has always been welcome, but before the advent of miniature low-voltage incandescent bulbs and LEDs, employing light was a challenge.

Nowadays, the ease of playing with light makes it ubiquitous. Although it usually plays a supporting role, providing a backdrop to other decorations or simply illuminating the area around the door.

For this purpose, we can use various glowing strings or LED strips to enrich the Christmas door decorations.

This year's favourite is to arrange compositions of different coloured lights. Provided our door allows it, we can prepare a Christmas tree semblance with light. Our creation can be a token Christmas tree consisting only of horizontal lines of white light. This kind of minimalism is spreading like wildfire. We can also opt for lifelike, colourful reproduction.

Those who love playing with lights can use them to create anything, such as a jolly Santa Claus carrying presents.

Lanterns, the second option in our arsenal, are placed next to doors rather than on them. We can also use them to decorate the elevation, windows, driveway, and garden fences.

They were the traditional way of illuminating Christmas decorations when we relied on candles. Today, it's a modern option that provides plenty of light. The thing is that brightening up our grey-blue winter, which has been pretending to be late autumn for the past several years, usually produces mediocre results.

For this reason, lanterns fare best in areas that remain clean and are very well cared for aesthetically, or wait until the snow cover has grown to at least a few pristine centimetres. Lanterns work best precisely when surrounded by snow.

The final item among the currently on-trend holiday adornments to catch the eye is Christmas doormats. Their answer to how to decorate our homes for the festive time is one of the simplest and most accurate ones.

Doormats are not exactly door ornaments, of course, but a well-chosen one can powerfully transform the entrance to the house. Weirdly, they capture the joyful atmosphere to the fullest.

Nonetheless, we need a degree of caution when it comes to doormats. Typical Christmas colours, i.e. brown and green interspersed with red, work well in this application. However, if it features Santa Claus or, horror of horrors, the likeness of other Christmas characters, we can cause quite an upheaval despite meaning well.

Door wreaths are most often bought since it is a quick and easy solution. Making one ourselves is worth it, though, particularly when the children can help. It will not be any more difficult than dressing a Christmas tree.

To start with, we need to think about the base. There are two options to choose from:

• rims;
• braiding.

Working with rims is quicker. These can be simple wooden rings or, more commonly, plastic rings painted in festive colours. Then we cover them with ornaments. Braided wicker rings are also a good option. It is easier to attach decorations to them later.

Braiding is made of twigs of various conifers. Their advantage is that once we have braided the wreath, we already have a beautiful natural wreath to which we simply add the decorations as we please.

Just like with Christmas trees, practically anything can go on wreaths. Before we get down to work, let's prepare our "anything" so that we don't have to search for it later. The above also applies to the fixing elements, which we will discuss momentarily.

Just like with Christmas trees, practically anything can go on wreaths. Before we get down to work, let's prepare our "anything" so that we don't have to search for it later. The above also applies to the fixing elements, which we will discuss momentarily.

Preparing the materials will help us to develop an aesthetic concept. It is then easier to envisage the result and decide whether the item fits with the door.

A little note. If we are also planning to create Christmas wreaths for windows, it is worthwhile to anticipate the appropriate design and attachment method. We need to be sure it does not interfere with our blinds or shutters, for example.

On the table where we will be working, twigs, dried fruit, ribbons and everything else should lie in tidy piles or in some other neat way to prevent clutter.

Making the wreath itself is not difficult. The easiest way is to weave all the decorations into it.

If something doesn't stick, we can use liquid glue. It is runny when warm and sets when it cools down. We will need a dedicated gun to apply it. We need to be careful that children do not burn themselves with it.

A cork can help too. When placed at the core of the wreath, it allows for easy insertion of ornaments. We can even use this material to form the wreath's rim, but this is not the best of ideas. The result may be too fragile.

Hanging decorations on doors should not pose any danger to them. However, we can get into trouble if we take a reckless approach.

We should always use non-invasive methods of affixing Christmas decorations. There are plenty of options to choose from that will help us beautify our doors, windows and the rest of the house:

• single-sided and double-sided adhesive tapes;
• self-adhesive hooks;
• dedicated wall mounting tapes;
• hooks latching on door elements.

With adhesive tapes of all kinds, especially mounting tapes, sometimes referred to as 'no-drill dowels' by their manufacturers, it is necessary to ensure that they are not hazardous to the substrate.

Some tapes are difficult to peel off because they are designed to support heavy weights in areas where aesthetics are of little importance. We must be sure that the tapes or self-adhesive hook have sufficient load-bearing capacity. All the same, let's not leave too much of a margin.

We also need to be careful with hooks when making handmade decorations. Hooking something to the door frame in the wrong way can result in the contraption falling and being damaged or, even worse, scratching the door and frame.

We had better avoid screws and nails of any kind. Some wooden doors allow their use, but is it worth permanently damaging the door when there are safer options?

The door is just one piece of the whole puzzle. It is good if something appears around it.

We have already mentioned two such things. These are lanterns and garlands. We can put them not so much on the door as round it or merely in the vicinity of the door.

Combining door ornaments with decorations on the windows is an excellent idea. We describe Christmas window adornments in detail in another text on our website - click and read more.

If we have shrubs in front of the house, we can wrap them with baubles or hang lights on them. Outdoor lighting is generally a great idea for Christmas. The long evenings mean we can enjoy them for many hours each day.

In addition, the American trend of placing various figures on roofs is growing in popularity. While a Nativity scene would be questionable, a Santa Claus parade is a safe and exciting option.

When decorating our surroundings, we ought to aim for a consistent effect. This applies especially to the colour scheme. Exuberance at Christmas is welcome, but there must be order to it. Otherwise, it turns to chaos.

Embellishing interior doors is not usually given as much priority as it is for exterior doors, and we do not usually do much about it. However, maybe it is worth changing that this year.

On interior doors, we can use everything that appears on exterior doors, although we need to make some allowances here.

Inside the house, we can hardly afford too elaborate decorations. We should also be wary of lighting because the flashing lights on the facade are one thing, and the flashes of LEDs that we see out of the corner of our eye when doing typical household chores are something completely different.

So what can appear on an interior door? How should we adorn an interior door? We can go for:

• wreaths;
• bows;
• drawings and stickers.

We have already discussed the first two elements. On interior doors, we will simply use their more subdued versions.

With drawings and stickers, on the other hand, we really can have a field day, all the more so as all sorts of non-permanent markers and pens are becoming more and more popular for creating non-permanent works.

For window decoration, we use something very similar - markers with chalk dissolved in a special light glue. We can use the same and similar inventions on doors.

Stickers are also an intriguing topic. Delving into their incredibly diverse range can be great fun, but it will also be a must. After all, the wealth of choices do not always go hand in hand with its quality. However, we will find many treasures. The 3D options, in particular, are impressive. All the more so when combined with other ornaments

To conclude, exterior doors are a graceful place to create Christmas decorations. A lot depends on how our doors and the overall facade look. Whatever they are, however, an exciting Christmas decoration can always be created on them.

Lights, wreaths, ribbons, lanterns – there are plenty of ideas, and it is worth putting the creativity and ingenuity of the whole family into action. We all have immeasurable amounts of imagination that beg to be spread throughout the house.

We hope this text will inspire you to create something that will make this Christmas even more marvellous than usual.