Tips on Decorating Interior Stairways for the Holidays

Greenery? Stockings? Lights? Decorating interior stairways can take on many forms. This holiday season, as people are quarantined indoors, they can expand decorations beyond the tree and mantel to include unique stairway accents. A touch of red bows pulls the eye toward the stairway. And, in our case, matching pajamas make for a great family picture on the stairs!

It’s great to think “outside the box” for stairway decorations. You can use small peppermint pool floats or inflatable candy canes for holiday decorating. You may want to repeat the same float in all the way up the stairs. This gives a visually impactful look that’s a playful, unexpected spin on holiday decorating.

Some Decorating Tips

The decorating elves at LivingBetter50 have a variety of ideas and tips for stairway enhancements this season:

Drape garland

Drape swags of garland the length of the railing. Between each dipping swag, hang a unique holiday ornament. Light up the night with a lit green garland that attaches to the handrail from top to bottom of the stairway.

Space out decorations

Space out your decorations on the stairway. Hang Christmas stockings mixed in with ornaments or balusters wrapped in garland or white lights. If you have white balusters in your stairway, wrap each one with a red ribbon to make them look like candy canes. Then attach real candy canes up and down the stairs.

Create a stairway quilt

To create a “stairway quilt design,” weave a variety of different holiday-themed ribbons throughout the rails going up the stairway. Go whimsical. Wrap fluffy white cotton around the entire handrail. Then position silly stuffed penguins, reindeer, or snowmen as if they’re sliding down the railing.

Balusters

For a fast way to decorate your balusters, create large, oversized bows out of red plaid ribbons. Attach them to alternating balusters or just on the newel posts. Consider placing poinsettias, wrapped gifts, or battery-lit candles on the stairs. As an alternative, you can fill decorative lanterns with red and green ornaments and place them on a few steps spaced out going up the stairway.

Remember to position items going up the steps to carry through on your decorating theme from your tree and living area. It doesn’t matter what style stair system you have, there’s always a way to decorate it for the holidays!

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