Erin And Ben Napier's Tips For Decorating Your Home For The Holidays
HGTV fans have likely seen Ben and Erin Napier on their television program "Home Town," which has been running since 2016 (per IMDb). It's spawned spinoff shows where they take their expertise on the road to other towns across America. The married duo have busy schedules filled with projects as they restore homes in their Southern hometown of Laurel, Mississippi and beyond, but they also make plenty of time for family — especially during the holiday season.
The Napiers have two daughters together, as People reports, and together they transform their cozy Mississippi home for the holidays every year. To that end, the pair appeared on "Today with Hoda & Jenna" in December of 2021, and there they shared a few quick and easy tips for decorating your own space for the festive season, as Today reports. Ben is admittedly the more enthusiastic of the two when it comes to seasonal décor, and Erin jokes that "Ben would go full Griswold" if she allowed it. "We go all out — we don't go as far as I would like to," he cheekily admits in the short clip, also dubbing himself "The Christmas King."
Here are a few of the Napiers' basic tips that you can customize to your own taste and aesthetic and apply in your own house this holiday season.
Add in plenty of greenery
While just about anyone celebrating Christmas will have a decked out tree as one of the focal points of their holiday décor, make sure not to overlook the power of greenery when it comes to transforming the rest of your space. One of the best places to add some holiday flair with greenery is along your mantel — and, since it isn't quite as holiday-specific as a lot of other Christmas décor, you can put it up a little earlier and keep it a bit later into the season, giving your home a festive feel for months. "I just have dried bay leaves, a garland of dried bay leaves that I keep up year round, but another example is more seasonal greenery," says Erin Napier on Today.
Greenery lasts far longer than flowers, and can be draped or arranged along your mantel for an easy festive touch. You can go with whatever you find in your area, from boughs of cypress to pine, juniper and spruce — which all can be found in places like markets, garden centers, and farm stands, as noted by USA Today. Plus, the greenery will make your space smell incredible.
And, if you're the type who loves to host all kinds of gatherings during the holiday season, consider incorporating some greenery in the rooms where you and your guests dine. "Ben's mom cuts them out of the yard and makes like a little arrangement on the dinner table," Erin adds.
Display holiday cards on rustic twine
Whether you opt to send holiday cards every year or not, there's a good chance you receive quite a few of them throughout the holiday season — as The Washington Post reports, approximately 1.6 billion of them are purchased every year. Since they are often stunning and decorative on their own, plus they have the sentimental perk of carrying well wishes from loved ones, why not display them in a beautiful way?
Rather than sacrificing space on your countertops, bookshelves, or mantels by just standing them upright, Ben and Erin Napier have a great DIY suggestion that takes mere minutes and requires just two inexpensive items that can be found just about anywhere: clothespins and twine. "Just get little clothespins and tack your cards up and they can hang vertically," suggests Erin on Today.
You can hang your strands of holiday cards by your Christmas tree, fireplace, near doorways, or wherever they would work best in your space. And, if you get a ton of them, you might even consider grouping them by color palette or aesthetic — for example, display cards featuring Christmas trees on some strands of twine near your own Christmas tree, arrange outdoor scenes near your cozy hot chocolate bar, etc.
Create personalized gift tags
Gift giving is another big part of the holiday season for many, and if you're the type who shops and wraps everything well in advance, consider using gifts as another element in your décor by adding some personalized gift tags, as Ben and Erin Napier outline on Today. Plus, they'll make any gift you give a little more special for the recipient.
To create the tags, the Napiers gathered a few printed images — since you likely don't want to cut up precious photographs just for a craft, consider printing some out on high-quality paper — and paired them with inexpensive flat wooden ornaments. You can cut out simple circles and glue them to fun wooden ornament shapes; or if you want to take things to the next level, as Erin explains, "You can get an ornament like this [a snowflake shape], lay [the photo] on top, and use an Exacto knife to cut around it, glue it on." Then, you'll have a photograph of your loved ones in a fun, festive shape.
While the Napiers kept things quite simple, you can easily customize the tags to your desired aesthetic by painting the wooden ornaments and attaching them to your gift with ribbons. Or, add whatever creative extra touch you can come up with.