Deck the Halls

This one is another do-what-you-see kind of craft. But I still thought I would share- maybe another RA out there somewhere would be inspired by it!

My floor of girls decorating the hallways tonight to get in the Christmas spirit. Finals are right around the corner and there is plenty of work to do. Still, it is always good to stop all that for a while and relax, talk with friends, do something creative and remember the reason for the season. As I sat on the floor making stockings with one of my girls it came so naturally to talk about some of the more difficult things going on in my life and her life right now. Having our hands doing something busy as well also makes it easier to open up sometimes. I think as an RA getting crafty (especially for girls) is an awesome way to create community. And for that reason, I will share some of the pretty basic things we did tonight and how we did them.

1. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear (or playing loud music for all to hear). Step one to bringing girls out of their rooms and into the common space is by turning up the Mariah Carey Christmas Music and getting the excitement flowing! 30 second dance parties are definitely a nugget of gold Grey’s Anatomy taught me.

2. 

   the windows looking into our lounge covered in decorations

   Lots and lost of paper chains! What an awesome space filler, and it kind of looks like snow. I have become a very thrifty RA, so one way this event got even cheaper is by asking. Mom always said it never hurts to ask. Well one day when walking through a copier room I asked if the department felt like donating a little paper to 2 West and Voila! They gave us 500 sheets for lots of snow flakes and paper chains.

3. Stockings (or something with the residents name on it). It doesn’t matter what you do- it could be making new name tags, putting stars around the ceiling, anything- but putting someone’s name on a piece of paper shows them they are important.

   

   our stockings hung on the “mantle”

   With some cheap red paper, strong tacky glue and cotton balls from AC Moore we made 30 cute stockings to with everyone’s names on them. Can you find yours, ladies of 2 West?

4.  I don’t have a picture, but at AC Moore there was a mega sale on pine tree garland (fake) for $3 for 9 feet! We got two, made a giant wreath out of one and covered a Nook wall in the other.
5. There are many other things we found in order to make this hall way seem more like a home away from home:
   • Christmas wreaths and mini christmas trees from the basement storage (check yard sales and even Michaels often has sales!)

     

     It might be missing half it’s lights, but doesn’t that just add to the college Christmas feel?

     

     definitely into this holiday season- my lovely Co-RA, Rebecca, and I

   • Window paints were a major score from the storage room as well. We have been able to decorate for all the seasons, and it comes right off with a hot water rag and windex
   • Ribbon and hemp for hanging things- you can never go wrong with that, and the dollar store has TONS
   • White wallpaper or wrapping paper- we made snow men out of that and a banner for the Nook
   • Command hooks and 3M
6. Some ideas I didnt try, but I will be saving for later is:
   • Giant bows made from cheap gold mesh from AC Moore
   • Printing pictures of our last adventures as a floor and make a collage somewhere in the hall- I am sure that would unite even more people
   • Decorating more of the lounge with paper chains
   • Having a “snow man building contest” : Using the white paper and some other decorative paper and covering half of the hallway in different snowmen made by a bunch of the girls. it would have really added to the white christmas theme
   • White lights on the walls EVERYWHERE

That’s pretty much all I have on ideas for decorating the hall, comment below if you think of some more! Get creative!