We hear you. You’ve decked your real-life halls with boughs of holly before December 1st even arrived and now you’re “fa la la-ing” to yourself because you’re still in the festive spirit with nothing left to decorate! It happens to us all, right? … Right? No? Just me? Ooookay then.
Just in case you are a holiday nut like me and actually were looking for an excuse to do more decorating, we’ve got you covered! Here are our top 10 holiday decorating tips for The Sims 4 to turn your Sims’ home into a magical Winterfest wonderland!
Put reindeer on the roof
The free holiday DLC comes with an adorable pair of wooden reindeer to decorate your front lawn… but it doesn’t have to be on your lawn! Why not put 4 of these up on the roof using the bb.moveobjects on cheat and the 9 key to raise them to the desired height? It will look like Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen are on the rooftop ready to help Father Winter deliver his presents!
Hang pinecones over windows, doors, and archways
There’s another handy piece of décor in the free holiday DLC! A cluster of pinecones with evergreen branches on either side make for a lovely rustic holiday wall piece. Place these on top of windows, door, and archways all over the house to give every room a touch of the wintery outdoors over the holiday season.
Yes, you CAN put a wreath on the front door!
Not only can you put a wreath on the front door, but Sims can still use the front door, too! I love BIG wreaths so my favourite to use is the one from the free holiday DLC but the game has no shortage of wreaths to choose from if you own the Seasons expansion pack. Use the bb.moveobjects on cheat to put a wreath on your front door to complete the holiday look. The only quirk with this décor tip is that the wreath will stay in place when Sims open and close the door so it will look like it’s floating in midair while the door is open. Sims will just walk right through the wreath. This doesn’t bother me since the door is usually closed. If this doesn’t bother, you, either, go ahead and give it a try!
Wreaths are great on windows, too!
You can also use the bb.moveobjects on cheat to put wreaths on windows! It depends on the size and shape of the window, of course, but many windows in the game look fantastic with a wreath displayed on it. It adds an extra level of detail to your exterior decorating and really makes your home look like the subject of a winter postcard.
Swap out the dining table and fireplace
You could decorate your mantelpiece and dining room table with holiday decorations… but why do that when there are already pre-decorated fireplaces and dining room tables in the game? Both the free holiday DLC and the Seasons expansion come with a holiday-themed fireplace and an 8-Sim dining table. These festive objects look much better than if you had plopped some garland on top of a regular fireplace or dining table and called it a day.
Centrepieces make a difference
Every surface in your home can benefit from a centrepiece for the holidays! Accent tables, coffee tables, dining tables, fireplace mantels, absolutely everything will look better with a festive centrepiece. My personal go-to are some of the holiday candles but there are lots of fantastic holiday trinkets you can use as centrepieces. Glass snowflakes, mason jar snow globes, nutcrackers, and more. Just make sure your centrepiece isn’t so large that it overpowers the whole table. Proportional centrepieces add the most charm.
Garlands, garlands everywhere!
Empty section of wall? Put a garland there. Need something to hang below a picture frame? Garland. Looking to dress up your windows a little more? More garland. Garlands are the most versatile holiday decoration. Hang them up outdoors, indoors, on walls, under windows and picture frames, on kitchen backsplashes and cabinets, just about anywhere and everywhere! Our biggest tip with garland is to keep things proportional. Don’t use the giant garlands in tiny spaces. Go with the smaller garland instead. Symmetry is also key, especially outdoors. If you’re adorning windows with garland, make sure every window has one. Keep your garland patterns consistent.
Remove or rearrange furniture to showcase the décor
It can be tough to fit a huge tree into a tiny living space but don’t be afraid to temporarily rearrange the living room furniture to make space for the tree and maintain functionality. My Sims family has a spot by the fireplace they put their tree every year. Normally, a rocking chair and knitting bag sit there but when winter comes around, the rocking chair and knitting bag go into household storage and gets replaced by the tree. If there’s just no fitting a full-size tree into your tiny home no matter how much rearranging you do, consider this neat little trick; use the bb.moveobjects on cheat, then select a full size tree and size it down to miniature size with the [ key. Then use the 9 key to raise it up onto any surface and voila! An instant tabletop holiday tree!
Focus on communal areas of the home
If you have a really big house to decorate for the holiday season, decorating can feel like a daunting task but it doesn’t have to be! While you can definitely go crazy decorating every single room of the home if you want to, you can save a lot of time by only decorating areas of the house your Sims’ guests are going to see. Focus on highly visible and communal gathering spaces in the home; the front exterior of the house, the dining room, and the living room. Everywhere else you can probably pass on if you want to save yourself hours of tedious decorating.
Don’t forget the front lawn!
What would Winterfest be without tacky plastic lawn ornaments? Don’t forget to spruce up your front lawn with glowing snowpals, those adorable wooden reindeer we mentioned earlier, and tall nutcrackers! It will give your house that retro mid-century holiday look. Or if you’re more into the hipster holiday look, maybe skip the fluorescent lawn ornaments and stick to pinecones, chalkboard pictures, and mason jar snow globes.
Do you have any Sims holiday decorating tips for us? Share them with us in the comments or come chat with us on social media!
Happy Holidays, Simmers!
