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Why You Should Decorate Your Dorm for Holidays

Brooke Johnson Student Contributor, Florida International University
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at FIU chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

My favorite thing to do for my dorm around any holiday is decorate. I decorate for Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day while listening to holiday-related music and relaxing from the stress of my daily life. I’m going to tell you what I use to decorate my dorm and how I do it.

HALLOWEEN

The main decoration I have is door decor; it’s the easiest thing to store and hang up. For Halloween, I have black paper bats from the dollar section at Target that I hang on my door.

Also from Target, I have 3D hanging pumpkins made of paper that I hang on the ceiling using ribbons and pushpins. These are easy to collapse and store when they’re not being used.

For wall decor, I purchased fake spider webs with little spider rings in them from Dollar Tree. These add a creepy effect to the entire room. Beware though, the tape used to stick the spiderwebs to the wall doesn’t hold up well on popcorn ceilings and walls.

My dorm has a common area with a table, so my roommates and I bought a themed plastic table cloth. Also from Dollar Tree is a paper skeleton we first tried sticking to the wall, but it fell down, so we just sat it on the couch as if it was a human. Any time we had guest come over, we really got into the Halloween spirit.

CHRISTMAS

Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I love to decorate right on November 1st every year. This past holiday season, I found these card-stock gingerbread people and used tape to stick them to all of the doors as decals. Even while I was hanging them up, people passing by would comment on how cute they were.

For the ceiling, I have holographic snowflakes that I stick up with pushpins. These are always twirling around to imitate falling snow.

A tree is kind of a necessity when decorating for Christmas, but no way could I afford a big Christmas tree, so I got a mini tree from Dollar Tree, along with a bunch of little tinsel figures; I have a penguin, a snowman, and a Santa hat that says “Merry Christmas.” Target’s dollar section also has mini trees that can fit in the palm of your hand, so I scatter those around the dorm too.

As for the bathroom area, I like to hang up these cute, festive signs that say “Milk & Cookies” and “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry.” A fun, scented hand soap is also always a good idea for the bathroom. Lastly, I hung up a festive shower curtain.

VALENTINE’S DAY

When it comes to Valentine’s Day, I mainly go for door decor with paper hearts and other stuff I can find at Dollar Tree or DIY. Even though it’s not much, it makes everyone happy.

Decorating the dorm is always such a fun task you can involve your roommates or your friends in. It also gets people into the spirit. Decorating your dorm can foster a sense of community and make a place into a cozy home, plus it will always make people smile.

Brooke Johnson is a first year member and writer at the HerCampus Florida International Chapter. She is still figuring out what types of articles she wants to specialize in.
Beyond HerCampus Brooke works part-time at TJMaxx. She has also submitted creative writing pieces to her high schools literary magazine but none of them were published. She also has a website with all her favorite creative writing pieces. She is majoring in English-Creative Writing at Florida International University.
In her free time, Brooke loves to read and is starting to go to the gym. She also does Color Guard. She has been spinning for eight years both in marching band and winter guard. She is currently marching with the FIU panther band. Brooke loves listening to Taylor Swift and has extensive knowledge of her entire life.