When To Decorate For Each Season: The Year-Long Holiday Decorating Schedule You Need
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Finally create a set schedule and stick to it! This is the guide for knowing when to decorate for each season. Now you won’t be too early or too late.
How do you know when to change your home decor from one season to the next one? Is there a guide? Well, now there is! Keep reading and learn when to clean up from the previous season.
Plus, you’ll also get some of Clutter Keeper’s best seasonal cleaning and organization tips, too!
Wondering where to begin? Get our FREE guide, The 30-Minute Organizing Secret, and discover easy ways to overcome the chaos of clutter – even with kids at home!
Seasonal Decorating: Your Guide
Honestly, take whatever you want from this guide and leave the rest. No one is going to check on you to make sure you switch from pumpklns to snowflakes. Your house is your domain, and you get to make the rules.
But, if you’re looking for a guide to help you organize your schedule all year, then this is perfect for you! This is a very loose, very basic seasonal guide. You’ll find examples of dates and ideas of when to find seasonal decor on sale.
We will start at the beginning of the year and work our way through the calendar year. Then, at the end, you’ll find some organization and cleaning tips, too!
January 1st: Winter
Some people like to start taking their Christmas decorations down the day after Christmas. Others keep them up for the entire week after Christmas. This choice is up to you.
If you don’t want to disassemble your entire Christmas tree, you can leave it up all year long – just remove the Christmas decorations. Then, you can either have an evergreen tree in your room or use it as a holiday tree.
Examples of winter home decorations:
- Snowflakes
- Snowmen
- Acorns
- Candles
- White, Blue, and Evergreen
When To Buy: These decorations go on sale in November, but you might be able to get some discounted things after Christmas.
January Holidays:
- New Year’s Day – January 1
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day – January 15th
February 1st: Valentine’s Day
Decorating for Valentine’s Day around the end of January. You’ll start to see Valentine’s Day stuff line the shelves in early January.
Either decorate with cupid and hearts or just stick with a colored decor theme – red, white, and pink.
On February 15th, transition back to winter decorations.
February Holidays:
- Groundhog Day – February 2
- Chinese New Year – February 10
- Mardis Gras – February 13th
- Valentine’s Day – February 14
- President’s Day – February 19th
March 1st: Spring
By this time of year, you’re ready for warmer weather and sunshine! I totally get it. So, switch the snowy decor for pastels, butterflies, and some flowers.
You can start as early as March 1st. Spring equinox is halfway through March, so some people like to decorate that week. In 2024, March 19th is the Spring Equinox.
When should you decorate for Easter? The date for Easter changes every year, but it’s best to decorate about two weeks before the holiday.
The good news is that Spring decorations can stay up through March and April.
March Holidays:
- St. Patrick’s Day – March 17th
- Easter – varies (in 2024 it is March 31)
May 15th: Summer
The summer equinox isn’t until mid-June, but some Americans like to decorate for Memorial Day. Either way, mid-May is a great time to start switching from the pastel Spring bunnies and butterflies to sunshine and bold colors.
Feel free to wait until June to decorate for Summer. The entire month of May is still spring.
May Holidays:
- May Day – May 1
- Cinco De Mayo – May 5
- Mother’s Day – 2nd Sunday in May
- Memorial Day – Last Monday in May
June 25th: Red White and Blue
USA’s Independence Day is July 4th, so start decorating about a week or 10 days before. It’s appropriate to leave patriotic decorations up all year long, but many people choose to switch back to summer decorations in August.
June Holidays:
- Flag Day – June 14
- Father’s Day – 2nd Sunday in June
- Juneteenth – June 19
July Holidays:
- Independence Day – July 4
August 15: Fall
You’ll start to see fall decorations in the stores in August. The Fall equinox is mid-September, but many people associate fall with the start of school and some schools start in August.
Don’t be pressured to decorate for fall in August. You can wait until September 1st to bring out the pumpkins, scarecrows, and dried sunflowers.
September Holidays:
- Labor Day: First Monday in September
October 1st: Halloween
If you choose not to celebrate Halloween, skip this section. But if you do celebrate it, decorate for it as early as you like. Generally, many people like to keep up spooky decorations for the entire month of October.
You’ll probably see Halloween stuff in the stores in September or even the end of August.
October Holidays:
- Indigenous People’s Day – 2nd Monday in October
- Halloween – October 31
November 1st: Thanksgiving
Some people might want to skip over Thanksgiving and start decorating for Christmas. If that’s you – have fun!
But it’s also appropriate to keep your fall decorations up throughout the entire month of November. It’s generally agreed that people use black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving – to decorate for the winter holidays.
November Holidays:
- Veteran’s Day – November 11
- Thanksgiving – 4th Thursday in November
December 1st: Christmas/Winter Holidays
Like I said earlier, some people will decorate for Christmas November 1st. It’s up to you. And you don’t have to decorate with Santa. Use your favorite winter or holiday themes throughout your home.
The winter holiday season usually runs from about the day after Thanksgiving until Epiphany (January 6th).
December Holidays:
- Christmas Eve – December 24th
- Christmas – December 25
- Hanukkah – December 25 until January 2nd
- Kwanzaa – December 26 until January 2nd
- New Year’s Eve – December 31
Seasonal Decoration Storage Ideas
What do you do with your seasonal and holiday decorations when you’re not using them? For this answer, check out our Holiday Organization Guide.
In the guide, you’ll find topics like:
- How To Organize Your Holiday Budget
- How To Prepare For Major Holidays
- Holiday Clean-Up Tips
My biggest tip for you is to store your seasonal decorations in tubs with a tight-fitting lid. Then, label each tote. This way, you can find exactly what you need when you need it.
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More Holiday Organization Tips
This guide is very thorough. But if you want more holiday ideas and tips, here are some more useful articles.
- Holiday Organizing Tips – This is 7 more tricks that will bring you success during every holiday of the year.
- Year-Round Decluttering Routine – Learn how to create a routine that will make your home organized all year long.
- Organizing and Planning Holiday Parties: Your Complete Guide – Find everything you need to organize and plan your holiday gatherings in this guide.
- Winter Organization: Your Complete Guide – This winter home organization guide will help you prepare for all the holiday parties, baking, and time you are going to spend inside.
