The holiday season always seems to catch us by surprise after Thanksgiving with the sudden abundance of bright decorations and potpourri.

Some staple traditions of the holidays include decorating a Christmas tree, lighting a menorah and creating fluorescent displays of Christmas lights. Such decorations may not be permitted or accessible at your current living space, but don’t fret. Listed below are five easy-to-craft holiday decorations costing next to nothing, which will prepare you for the holiday season.

1. Cover your apartment or dorm room door in wrapping paper.

This not only costs very little to do, but it takes very little time as well. You can choose whatever wrapping paper you want and then hang it up using some tape. The final product will no doubt reflect your holiday spirit to everyone who walks by.

2. Make some snow flakes out of paper.

This is a classic decorating hack that will provide some wintery vibes to your room if the freezing snow outside isn’t enough for you. You can look up tutorials on how to make them, then hang them up on your walls. The only things you need are a decent supply of paper, a high tolerance for paper cuts and an equally high holiday spirit.

3. Hang stockings.

It also couldn’t hurt to get a few stockings from the local dollar store to hang up either inside your room or outside your door. You could put whatever you want in your stockings: perhaps some potpourri or your favorite class syllabus.

4. Holiday lights all over the room.

Holiday lights can be bought in bulk, and they are relatively cheap. Rooms decorated with lights are mostly noticeable at night, and they are very cool to look at. They provide a warm atmosphere to the room, both aesthetically and literally, depending on what kind of wattage your lights use.

5. Orange clove pomanders.

These require whole cloves, an orange (a clementine will suffice), a ribbon and some kind of small sharp tool to cut holes in the orange. You can probably find your orange at your dining hall, but the whole cloves will probably require a little more expenditure to get.

You first wrap the ribbon around the orange, insert the cloves into the orange holes and finally hang them up in your room. The scent is surprisingly pungent and evokes the holiday spirit perfectly.

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