Rockin’ around the Xmas tree

Santa around the Christmas tree. Photo: Kevin Dooley

It’s that time of year again. Amidst all of the secret Santas and the gift-buying there’s that nagging concern of whether you should go to the trouble of decorating your squalor of a student apartment.

The pros are that you can make the squalor look somewhat more inviting and livable by Christmas-ifying it. You can also get that Christmas ‘feeling’ a few weeks in advance of the big day. The con however, is that Christmas decorations cost money.

I’m not suggesting you elaborately coat your walls in gaudy red decorations or even buy a real tree – although you may miss the smell of a real one – I’m simply saying that with Christmas decorations, a little goes a long way.

During the course of my extensive research for this piece, I stumbled upon Hubpages’ guide for decorating your home on the cheap. Among their suggestions was to “Put a votive in a antique tea cup and sit it on a saucer atop several vintage holiday books.”

Well, that’s not really going to work, since I don’t think many students know what a votive is, and probably don’t have access to antique tea cups and vintage holiday books.

For someone who is adverse to spending any money at all on giving their student digs a bit of festive charm, the bare minimum involves setting up an iPod and a speaker, downloading several Christmas albums, and simply playing them from now up until the point where January 6 comes around.

Putting something like It’s a Wonderful Life or a more modern Christmas movie if you’re so inclined, and playing that on a loop is also guaranteed to give your place some sort of a Christmas vibe.

If you’re a student who travels home at the weekends, things should be substantially easier for you. You have the option of raiding the family Christmas decoration stash before the rest of your family even think to take them down from the dusty old attic.

Your family may, however, be one of those that is very sentimental about what goes where in the house in the run up to Christmas. Only take the angel if you’re sure that your family is using the star on top of the tree this year.

The best thing is it doesn’t really count as ‘stealing’ if you’re taking it from a family member. That said, don’t get too greedy. Student apartments are generally small, so try to take an amount of decorations that proportionally represents your flat in comparison to your family home. One fifth perhaps?

Aiming a tad higher, one of the simplest things you can do is buy a set of fairy lights and put them in a focal point of your apartment to add some instant Christmas cheer.

Tesco seem to be the cheapest place for indoor Christmas lights at the moment, with a set going for €2.99 each. It’s not going to break the bank and it makes a big difference to a room. You might even have enough for two sets.

The real question you have to ask yourself when decorating your apartment is – am I getting a Christmas tree or not?

You can pretty much kiss goodbye to getting a real tree. The money and effort involved isn’t going to match student living in any way, shape or form. Yes, you’re going to lose the elusive ‘Christmas tree smells’, but don’t fret, you’ll get that at home on Christmas Day.

Tesco, once again, is the go-to-guy for cheap (and unashamedly fake) Christmas trees. You can get your hands on a six foot Canadian pine tree from Tesco, currently selling at half price at €12. If your price range is lower still, the Tesco Value six foot tree is €9.99.

Pair one of these trees with a set of their fairy lights, and throw in a box of their decorations (which should be enough to cover the tree, unless your judgment of decoration-per-square-inch is a little off) and you should be good to go.

If you’re really going to try and push the limits of what can be done completely free, then you may consider – sigh! – homemade decorations.

You’re probably going to use some excuse like ‘needing a creative outlet’ or ‘actually being quite good at these sorts of arts and crafts things’, but be warned – homemade decorations are rarely done well. More often than not, people will wonder where the young child who has littered your flat with shitty bits of paper is.

Some people (mostly American) are advocates of the ‘popcorn garland’. All you have to do is poke a needle through many pieces of popcorn, thread a string through and hang them somewhere.

Alternatively, get a white piece of paper. Fold it several times, trying to keep the folds somewhat even. Go mad with a scissors. Unfold the piece of paper. Yes, my friends, that IS your own custom-made snowflake right there.

If you’re still desperate at this point, run to your bathroom. Grab a toilet paper roll (sans the actual paper, of course). Cut it up into even segments and cover these segments with a Christmas fabric of some kind. Red felt maybe? A square off your sofa covering? Glue this on to the roll and you’ve essentially made yourself some festive napkin holders.

Please, for the love of God, go to Tesco and buy some decorations. Nobody will be impressed by your popcorn garland. Except maybe yourself, who appreciates all of the effort that went in.