During December, when our homes are full of festive decorations and beautiful ornaments, it’s easy to forget that within a month, you’ll need to take them all down and put them away. It might not be the most cheerful thought, especially when you’ll be full of the Christmas spirit, but it needs thinking about. You don’t want to get to mid-January and realise that your old bauble boxes are split and that you’re not quite sure how to keep your tree clean until the end of the year again! Fortunately for you, we’ve figured out some of the best Christmas decoration storage tips, so in January, you’ll feel prepared to take down your tree, lights, statues, and more and feel confident that they’ll stay safe until the next advent.
First, what will you put all your Christmas decorations in at the end of the season? You need to ensure it’s all protected from dust, grime, and perhaps even mice. But you can’t just throw it all in a cardboard box or a black bin liner – these aren’t the strongest of containers, and things like delicate baubles or statues may get broken from being jumbled in together. Plus, these are your Christmas decorations! They deserve something more than a cheap binbag!
- Artificial Christmas Trees: Slim down an artificial Christmas tree and compact its bushy branches by zipping it up in a specialist Christmas Tree Storage Bag. Often made of thick polyester, these robust bags protect your tree and keep it compact enough to slip into a spare corner or cubbyhole.
- Real Christmas Trees: This is an easy one. Plant it in your garden! You probably won’t be able to dig it up to use again next year, but it's so much less wasteful than sending it off to the gardening centre to be shredded. Plus, you’ll gain a beautiful new tree that you can care for and watch grow throughout the year.
- Baubles & Other Hanging Decorations: Baubles can be tricky, as many are often made from glass or feature delicate detailing that you’ll want to keep in pristine shape for next year. That’s why ornament chests are the best choice. These are smart boxes with partitioned sections, where each section can hold one bauble or hanging decoration, sufficiently protecting each piece. These chests often feature some subtle and sophisticated festive styling, so they’ll be easy to spot when you need them, but won’t throw Christmas in your face when you're rummaging around your storage spaces in, say, the middle of summer.
- Statues & Plaques: Larger than tree decorations, a festive statue or a plaque is unlikely to fit into an ornament chest. We advise carefully wrapping any fragile ornaments in bubble wrap (you might even get some you can reuse when opening presents on Christmas day!) or newspaper and stowing them away in a suitably-sized box. Whether you choose one with festive designs or something that looks a little different, your statues will be safe and sound once they’ve got a lid on them.
- Wrapping Paper: Leftover wrapping paper is perhaps one of the most niggling things about the festive period. Every Christmas, we’re left with a few paper lengths splashed with Santas, snowflakes, reindeer, and snowmen. It can’t be used any other time of year, and keeping it out in the open could lead to the pattern fading or the paper getting crumpled. Our solution? Keep it in a gift wrap storage tube or poster tube (again, if you get any posters yourself for Christmas, make sure you save the packaging!) This tube will protect your paper, and by the time you pull it out again next year, you might forget how much wrapping paper you’ve saved up and be able to save a couple of quid by simply finishing off the rolls!
If you’ve lived in your home for a long time, you probably already have a place where you store your Christmas decs year after year. But just in case you’ve moved into a fresh new house, or if you think you could maximise your storage space more, we’ve got some unobtrusive, space-saving suggestions.
Of course, the loft or the basement are the two most common homes for Christmas decorations. Both are often spacious places designed explicitly with storage in mind, so you’ll have enough room for your tree, baubles, statues, and lights, where you can neatly stack it all in a corner and forget about it until next year. You could also use a spare bedroom - unless you’ve prettied it up for all your frequent guests. But if your spare room doubles as a storage space, it is a perfect place. An advantage it has over a loft or basement is that they’ll be less tight spaces and stairs to be trekking all the decorations down come December, making it a perfect option for anyone who might worry about trying to get their tree down a loft ladder or carrying delicate baubles up some basement steps. Two smaller yet still neatly-hid-away spaces are under your bed or the cupboard under the stairs. Again, these are easy-access spots that cut out the trouble of many stairs so that when you want to get all your sparkles and tinsel up on the first of December, you can quickly slide all your gear out and get to the exciting bit!
Look through our specialised Christmas Storage section, where you will find something to protect your festive decorations throughout the year.
