Looking for easy ideas to transition from Christmas into winter decor? Here are 21 creative ideas to get the house ready for the new season in minutes.

Raise your hand if you are ready for the new year.

A new year?

I know, right?

I’m as surprised as you. Somewhere between celebrating the holidays and going on a cruise and watching football—2023 showed up.

I feel like I just put away all the pumpkins.

After we got home from the cruise, I spent the last couple of days de-Christmasing my house. It’s kind of hard to put away the twinkling lights. So I like to give myself a little encouragement and ease into undecorating slowly with one post-Christmas foot in front of the other.

I bought the best organizers to inspire me and left all the non-Christmas stuff out and thought about how we stress out about when to take down our Christmas decor and how it can all be a little overwhelming. So I wanted to share tips to make it easier and simple decorating ideas that I do every single year to ease into winter.

Here are 21 ideas to transition from Christmas into winter decor.

21 Ideas To Transition from Christmas Into Winter Decor

1. Take down the Christmas totes

Let’s go all Julie Andrews and start at the very beginning (it’s a really good place to start).

If you are thinking about de-Christmasing your house and you don’t know where to begin?

Just bring down a couple of totes.

Not all of them—I started with four.

I know it can be scary to see them.  Sometimes my totes look at me with a judgemental eye and make me feel like I’m not moving fast enough to put away Christmas.  If your totes start to backtalk you?

Don’t listen.

You are the boss of your de-Christmasing project.

Take the lids off of them and leave them open in the center of your hallway.

Those open totes are step one on the journey to taking it all down.

2.  Fill up the totes with things that look like Christmas

You know what I’m talking about.

The Santas.

The stockings.

The light up blinking Merry Christmas sign.

The elves that climbed up the Christmas tree.

Here are examples of things that went into my Christmas bins first.

• Anything that said Christmas.
• Ornaments I was using to decorate with.
• Sleighs.
• Merry Christmas pillows.

You get the idea.

3. Keep the non-Christmas items out

Here are some examples of what I kept.

• Anything pinecone.
• Anything greenery (except real greenery—it’s probably time to trash that).
• Anything branchy looking.
• Any small trees that looked like winter.

4.  Organize the totes as you are putting things away

This makes everything so much easier for next year.

Remember when I said to leave all four totes open with their lids off?  That’s because you want to organize things as you are putting them away so that next year when you open them they won’t look like a jumbled mess.

We are starting with four totes because it’s less overwhelming.

You can read about my organizers and what I did with all my Christmas stuff here.

You can also tape a piece of paper to the inside lid of the tote and write what you place in each tote with a pen.

5. Save the trees for last

I know this might seem counterintuitive. The trees are the largest decorating items in the Christmas repertoire.

I get it.

I understand.

But I like to take the un-decorating in small doses and when you remove all the Christmas from the rest of the house?  The trees look like cozy winter trees and the lights are so pretty at night.

This also allows me to stagger the un-decorating so it’s not so painful to see it go.

If you like the lights, you could even remove the ornaments and just leave the tree with the lights. Ease into non-Christmas decorating and leave all the twinkles behind.

6.  Clean up, fluff and make it smell good

De-Christmasing is the perfect time to clean.

It’s almost like you can’t help it.  When you clear off those surfaces and take down all the garland and it drops on the floor and counters and cabinets.

Wipe them down with a cleaner that smells like winter.

Dust off the cobwebs.

Take out the trash.

Then fluff what remains and make everything else smell good.

Here are some of my favorite winter scents:

• my favorite inexpensive candle
• cinnamon and clove
• citrus and balsam
• snow cherry and macron

7. No sew pom pom throw

Now that everything is cleaned up, it’s time to add a little winter cozy.

And if you are looking for an easy, cute way to add a little cozy to your home, here are the directions to a pom pom throw you can make in minutes.

Here’s my favorite yarn to use with this project.

You can see it here.

8. Glue pinecones onto branches

Here’s another idea for winter decorating with pinecones that you can combine with acorns, too.

Create art with branches from the yard.

You can see how I DIY’d them here.

9. Replace Christmas wreaths with felted wreaths you can make from sweaters

I love a good Christmas wreath as much as the next person. For winter you can just remove the ribbon and the berries and just leave the Christmas wreaths as winter wreaths.

Or you can make a new wreath for winter. All you need to make this wreath is some wool sweaters and a dryer.

You can see the project here.

And once you learn how to felt wool, the sky is the limit.

You could make pillows or garlands or pinecones or appliques, too.

See the instructions above.

10. Add a pinecone under a cloche

Everything looks cuter under a cloche.

Including a pinecone.

Stack a set of white plates and add a pinecone to the center.

Here’s the cutest metal and glass cloche.

11. Add a New Year’s message

I decorated the chalkboard in the kitchen for winter.

All I did was add a layer of pinecones to the base and write a Happy New Year message. You could also add a winter wreath to the chalkboard.

This would be a cute look for a window sill, too.

12. Winter Twig Wreath

Here’s another winter wreath you can make, too. I know I’ve shared this before, but it is SO worth repeating.

All you need to do is shop your yard and add a little glue and spray paint.

This craft is basically free.

You can see the instructions here.

13. Make a wreath from pinecones

Take your winter wreath to the next level with a wreath constructed entirely of pinecones.

You can use mini pinecones or regular pinecones.

See the DIY instructions here.

Also found the cutest version here if you don’t want to DIY.

(total aside: you can also glue pinecones onto a cone and make a tree, too).

14. Pom Pom Pillow

Drop cloth holds up really well when used on a pillow.

You can see this pillow project here.

Here’s my favorite yarn to use with this project.

You can see it here.

15. Snowball garland

Pom poms are cute on pillows, but what about pom poms that look like snowballs?

I got you.

See this DIY pom pom snowball garland here.

16. Decorate a coffee table with a pinecone-filled dough bowl

Leave out your jingle bells and add pinecones to the mix for winter. In the family room, I filled the dough bowl with rusty jingle bells and pinecones.

There is nothing better than a rusty jingle bell.

You can see the rusty jingle bells here.

17. DIY sweater vases

Remember when we used the sweaters to make a wreath?

Guess what you can do with the rest of your sweater?

Use it to cover a vase.

• dropcloth
• chunky charcoal yarn
• vintage faucet handles
• chunky white yarn
• knitted throw blanket
• linen pillow covers

18. These DIY wood slice branches

This was one of my most popular DIY’s of 2022.

It’s SO EASY to make and such a quick and inexpensive craft.

You can see how to make these DIY wood slice branches here

19. Mix it up with garland and greenery stems on a mantel

Take down the stockings and transition your Christmas into winter decor with winter greenery and eucalyptus. 

Start with these battery-operated candles here.

Then add in pinecones and pine branches and eucalyptus.

20. Make a snowflake from pinecones

This simple DIY snowflake is made with mini pinecones.

I used a vintage barn door for the backdrop.

You can see the DIY here.

If you don’t have mini pinecones you can order them here.

21. Leave out mini houses and bottle-brush Christmas trees

This is what my hutch looks like right now. I’m transforming my Christmas into winter decor now.

The Christmas houses are winter houses.

The Christmas trees are winter trees.

I think it’s going to stay this way until St. Patrick’s Day.

Here are some more of my favorite ways to decorate after all the Christmas is put away:

• make a twig vase and paint it white
• add battery-operated taper candles to the mantel
• leave out a set of white skates and fill with greenery
• drape wooden garland over a set of books
• leave out snowflake pillows
• add white velvet bows to wreaths
• add scented pinecones to baskets
• fill milk glass with jingle bells

Here are also some of my favorite faux winter greenery that will take you from now until spring.

Sigh.

Be kind to yourself.

Christmas undecorating is hard.

Go slow and enjoy the process and spring will be here before you know it. 🙂

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