It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in my house! I love to start to decorate at the beginning of November for the holidays. It is a really busy time of year for us, and we travel for one or both Christmas and Thanksgiving, so by decorating early I can enjoy it more. I do hold off on the tree until around Thanksgiving, though. Since I just put up my Christmas decor, I’m excited to share many ideas for neutral holiday decor and give you a Christmas home tour!
When I decorate for any season, I still want it to follow my style, and blend with my furniture and decor that stays up year-round. For me, that means neutrals! Let’s define neutrals in this setting, because we can’t have holiday decor without some sparkle, so for me, neutral means whites, tans, browns, blacks, and yes, silvers and golds. This neutral color palette of neutral Christmas decor follows my style of home, and keeps things calm and relaxing, but still festive!
As I decorated for Christmas, I followed some of the mid-century modern home decorating principles as I went, though we are certainly more than minimal and well-covered surfaces now. When neutral Christmas decorating, I always struggle with which everyday decor to keep out and what to put away. I chose it all so carefully, I don’t want to hide any of it! In this post, I’m sharing great neutral Christmas decor ideas, what to buy, and how to style it in your home.
Related: Check out this post for Christmas decorating for small apartments!
10 Neutral Holiday Decor Ideas for Mid-Century Modern Homes
Tabletop Trees
Growing up, Christmas was an exciting time of year. My parents and grandparents decorated their homes and shared all of their beautiful and nostalgic Christmas decor. My grandmother collected Santa Clauses, my mom has tons of snowmen, and I have trees. From bottle brush trees to metal, to wooden, I even have a pom pom one in my office! I love them and place them all over my home. From within my wooden village, to my entry console, and my sideboard. I even have two on the floor flanking the fireplace.
Trees are great because they go with everything,. You can place them anywhere and they look great, and they come in tons of sizes. I love how many colors you can find them in, you could solely decorate with trees if you wanted to! I love this neutral set of bottle brush trees.
Modern Christmas Village
I grabbed my wooden houses at Target a few years ago and I love them! I love a Christmas village, but red and green aren’t my style. These wooden houses make the perfect mid-century modern village for my Christmas living room! This year, I placed it on the TV console, I interspersed trees throughout and added some twinkle lights. My exact houses aren’t available this year, but I love this black metal set.
Neutral Nutcrackers
I have a ton of nutcrackers in my home. I was in ballet, and we did the Nutcracker every year around Christmastime, oftentimes I would receive a Nutcracker as a gift, so I’ve amassed quite a collection over the years. Many of mine are very traditional in nature, but they do come in neutral colors! Personally, I still prefer the traditional style to the monochrome statues, mostly for the tradition, but whichever you prefer, there are tons of options!
Garland
Bear with me on this one, but I think a natural color, like green, in this case, I would consider neutral. I personally think a black or tan would stand out more in a bad way, but it’s certainly an option. I think the classiest option is a super natural-looking garland, with minimal ornamentation to follow a sleek mid-century modern look.
On my mantle, I use command hooks to hold everything in place. I have two thinner strands of garland with white berries from Target last year, and then I added two individual branches, which happened to be sparkly. The sparkles were unintended but it was the most realistic-looking branch stems I could find to thicken the garland, and I think it ended up working out great since the sparkles twinkle off of the lights. The stems are super floppy so be aware they will not be great for a vase since they will likely just drape over the side.
Floor Decor, Tall Trees
When decorating, we remember the surfaces and doors but don’t forget about all levels of the home. There are a ton of trees, nutcrackers, and statues that can be set on the floor. I love these wooden trees I found a couple of years ago, these are the most similar that I could find!
Pot Pourri
I have had the same potpourri for ages. I love this one I picked up at Home Goods on a whim, it has everything from dried flowers to pine cones and silver balls. It fits my decor well and is neutral with. a bit of sparkle. This is a very similar one! You can find so many versions out there, and they can smell great! I like them for the bathroom, but would recommend definitely keeping them out of the kitchen and dining room.
Bowl Filler
I have this massive gold bowl and I love to use it for coffee table decor. It would also be great on a kitchen table! I found that with a bowl this large, I have to fill the bottom with paper or stuffing, and set the bowl filler on top. I have two types of branches and my favorite find from last year is the large jingle bells! Similar to the garland, you can never go wrong with something that looks natural. I also add twinkle lights everywhere possible, I love for everything to twinkle!
Stockings
You can never go wrong with a classic velvet or a cable knit for stockings. The velvet would be a great option for mid-century modern, and I do hope to update mine soon! These cable-knit stockings give a warm and cozy neutral Christmas decor and a warm feeling. Of course, the red isn’t neutral, but I couldn’t deny Kale his favorite color!
Wreaths
Similar to the garland you can never go wrong with a classic pine, and in many cases, that is my chosen option. However, I think this is where you can stray from the natural and look at other options. I LOVE these velvet wreaths, I have two coming soon! I even looked into DIY’ing them and found it would cost exactly the same so I just bought mine.
To match, I picked up this 3ft wreath and added lights, bells, and a grey velvet ribbon to match the grey wreath that will be placed inside the back door, adjacent to the fireplace. A note about these bells, though, buyer beware, they are of terrible quality. Essentially spray-painted tin, so I was only ok using them in a place seen from afar. They do seem to look alright up on the wreath, but I wouldn’t use them on the mantle or closer to eye level.
Holiday Pillows
These modern black and white Christmas tree pillows were such a great purchase this holiday season! I love the juxtaposition of the black on my white chair. Things like this give me hope that you can find non-cheesy holiday pillows and decor! Pro tip when buying pillow covers, pick out inserta that are one size larger than the cover, that way they look full and fill out the cover.
Tree Decor
For me, our Christmas tree is a focal point, though not a styled piece that looks like I walked it out of a department store. My husband and I both grew up with personal Christmas trees full of nostalgic ornaments from our travels, gifts, and family throughout the years, and we kept up the tradition with our own. I did grab a neutral, white woven tree collar, and I have a great cable knit tree skirt for the one I put up in my office!
