Holiday houseplants are a simple way to add a touch of festive spirit to your home. Create a vibrant and cozy atmosphere that complements the spirit of the season by incorporating these indoor plants that are perfect for the holidays into your home decor.
15 Plants to Decorate Your Home with for the Holidays
1. Croton
Croton is a beautiful and festive plant for your home during the Fall holidays because it contains all the reds and yellows often associated with this time of year. They originated in Southeast Asia, where they grow as bushes, up to 10 feet tall, but the household variety is much smaller.
Pick the right pot, as they can become top-heavy. Use soil that drains well so the plant remains moist but doesn’t sit in water. Since these plants are tropical, they like temperatures over 50 degrees, making them an ideal indoor plant for the Fall and Winter holidays.
2. Tradescantia
Like Crotons, the Tradescantia is bedecked in seasonal colors, the underside a vibrant purple well-suited to Christmas, Channukah, Kwanzaa, and other December holidays. They like bright but indirect sunlight, which is more common in winter than summer and spring.
Allow about half the soil to dry out between waterings, especially during winter when their moisture needs are reduced. They prefer temperatures between 60 and 75 degrees and higher humidity. Add a wet pebble tray or humidifier if your plant leaves start drooping.
3. Dwarf Citrus
Despite citrus often being associated with the summer, dwarf citrus plants are one of the most popular winter houseplants. Because citrus plants fruit in the winter, they can add a summery vibe and a touch of color to your home during the long, bland winter months.
Freshly grown citrus can also be used in cooking and baking, making beautiful holiday or hostess gifts. They like warm temperatures and high humidity, making them ideal indoors for the fall and winter. And you can move them outside during the spring and summer if you live in a warm enough climate.
They require hand pollination if you keep them inside year-round and you want them to fruit. They need at least 6 hours of direct light but prefer 8 to 12 hours. Place them near south-facing windows, ensure proper drainage, use a nitrogen-based fertilizer, and repot every 3 years.
4. Chinese Evergreen
The Aglaonema Pink Star is vibrantly colored, and the Chinese Evergreen Aglaonema is equally tolerant of low light and cool temperatures, making both excellent options to give your home a festive flair. Ideal temperatures for these plants are 65 to 70 degrees, and they like a humid environment.
This may mean adding a humidifier to the room where you’re keeping your Aglaonemas. Using a wet pebble tray or spraying your plants can also help. Use an acidic soil that drains well, and repot every two to three years.
5. Jade Plant
Jade plants are incredibly resilient succulents that thrive on little water and live for decades, making them an ideal choice in the middle of the trickiest plant-tending season. These plants can live for 50 to 100 years and are often passed down from generation to generation.
They look like little trees and can even be decorated with bows and tiny ornaments. They do best in warm, dry climates, and during the fall and winter months, when they are dormant, they should be watered rarely.
They need at least 6 hours of bright, indirect sunlight and do best in temperatures of 65 to 75 degrees. They should be kept away from cold windows or drafts during the winter. Repot them every two to three years when they’re younger; then, once established, every four to five years.
6. Zamioculcus Zamiifolia (ZZ Plant)
The Zamioculcus Zamiifolia, more simply known as the ZZ Plant, is the perfect option for the holidays and for more forgetful houseplant tenders or travelers who can’t be relied on to care for plants regularly. Whether you are traveling to be with family during the holidays or hosting them at your home, plant care may be low on your list of to-dos. Fortunately, the ZZ plant doesn’t mind.
This low-maintenance plant practically thrives on neglect, needing nothing more than well-drained soil and fertilizer twice a year. It requires little to no light and only minimal water, making it an excellent choice for fall and winter when light and heat may be hard to come by.
7. Aloe Plant
Like most succulents, the aloe plant needs little water, and though it requires a lot of light, it is an excellent option for winter. It has the added benefit of containing a healing gel inside its leaves, used for everything from cuts and abrasions to sunburns.
The aloe plant does well in kitchen windows, and requires little fertilizer, which should be watered down to half-strength and used only once a year in the spring. It does best in terracotta pots, which allow the soil to dry out between waterings.
In the right conditions, an aloe plant can live for twelve years. It prefers well-drained soil and temperatures from 55 to 85 degrees, making it perfectly suitable as an indoor winter plant.
8. Cyclamen Persicum
Cyclamen are cold and low-light tolerant and come in many colors associated with the holidays – white, pink, and red. Dress up your windowsill in candy colors, or concoct a border in holiday shades by choosing a couple of these winter thrivers. Even if you’re not the type to celebrate the winter holidays, these houseplants can brighten up your home during the blander months.
These plants are readily available in garden centers during the fall and winter and make lovely holiday and hostess gifts. They like bright sunlight but cooler temperatures, no warmer than 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit. Water from a saucer at the bottom of the plant, fertilize minimally and remove dead flowers as soon as possible.
If you want your cyclamen to flower annually, stop watering them in the spring and summer. The leaves will turn yellow and fall off, but they will begin to regrow in September, when you should start watering and tending to it more carefully again.
9. Dracaena Trifasciata
There are several types of Dracaena, all of which are excellent fall and winter plants. But the Dracaena Trifasciata, or Snake Plant, stands out because of its ability to tolerate meager light and little water, making it ideal if you travel over the holidays or are distracted by guests in your home. If you have low light to put it in, it should be a location where it can receive eight to ten hours a day of sun, but if it’s in direct light, limit the exposure to two to four hours.
Water minimally, allowing the soil to almost completely dry out between spring and autumn. You can water more heavily in the cooler months but keep the soil primarily dry; over-watering leads to root rot. Water once every 2 to 8 weeks, allowing the top 2-4 inches of soil to dry between watering.
In addition to being low-maintenance and cool-weather tolerant, these plants are stunning. The leaves, or blades, can grow up to twelve feet tall and are green with yellow edges or variegations.
10. Galanthus Nivalis (Snowdrops)
Galanthus Nivalis are low maintenance and look like a winter plant, with blossoms resembling snowdrops. These little white flowers also bloom in the winter, typically in January or February.
They are smaller plants, so they’ll complement a small home or apartment beautifully. But if you have a larger home, you might want to consider planting several in a trough-style planter so they can mass and look even more impressive.
How often you need to water depends on your climate and how warm you keep your home. Warmer environments need more water, while cooler ones need very little. These plants do best in cooler climates, so if you are someplace hot, they may not be the best choice for your home. They are also toxic to curious children and pets.
11. Anthuriums
With its deep red, leaf-like flowers, anthuriums make an extravagant holiday plant. They are also visually stunning in the fall and winter months. If you’re looking for a single plant to add to your home to give it some character but don’t want a lot of work taking care of it, anthuriums are one of the best options.
Blooms on this plant are traditionally red but can also be found in white and pink, lasting up to three months. A healthy anthurium can bloom up to six times yearly, making these plants perfect year-round. And far from flowery, these structurally beautiful plants are an excellent choice for minimalists.
12. Phalaenopsis Orchid
Phalaenopsis Orchids come in various colors, but the white version is an excellent winter option. It is the color of pristine snow and flourishes in the medium, indirect light often available in the year’s cooler months. Other options include salmon, purple, pink, or yellow; many are splotched, creating a splash of color in your home during the drearier months.
If your orchid is kept indoors year-round, you may need to encourage it to bloom in the fall by lowering the temperature of its environment for several nights. Keep it in a moderately bright window, water every 7 to 10 days, and use an orchid fertilizer as needed.
13. Oxalis Triangularis
The Oxalis Triangularis is a purplish-red plant that does better inside than out, making its colors and preferred conditions ideal for the fall and winter. This plant is also known as False Shamrock because of its four-leafed petals. It will easily survive until Saint Patrick’s Day, when traditional shamrocks are more in season.
Indoors, they do best in a window, where they can get direct light. It prefers dry soil and should be watered sparingly to prevent root rot. Use a humidifier if your home is dry, and keep the temperature between 65 and 75 degrees. Use a traditional houseplant fertilizer in the spring and summer.
And remember that even if all the leaves on your plant have died, it doesn’t mean the end for your plant. This sturdy houseplant stores energy in the soil beneath the plant, meaning it can recover from dormancy or even a deathly appearance given time and the proper attention.
14. Ficus Burgundy
The ficus, in general, makes an excellent hardy winter houseplant, but with its dark, evergreen leaves and red stamen, the Ficus Burgundy makes a perfect option for your home in the fall and winter. The leaves on this plant are so dark they almost seem black, making an ideal choice for your home as early as the fall, when they give your home a spooky vibe for Halloween.
It’s a beautiful but sophisticated plant, making it an equally good choice for your office during the cooler months. And it will still look professional come spring and summer, though its needs will be slightly different then.
During the fall and winter, you should only water this plant every 8-10 days. In the summer, increase the watering to once a week.
The ficus burgundy needs well-drained soil and bright indirect sunlight. You must prune regularly so the plant doesn’t become overly bushy. Repot every year to year and a half in a pot that’s an inch or two larger than the root ball of your plant.
15. Schlumbergera Truncate (Christmas Cactus)
Botanists would argue this is not a true Christmas Cactus (the Schlumberga X Buckleyi), but this “Thanksgiving Cactus” is part of the same family. The Schlumberga Truncate is a succulent, meaning it is drought-tolerant and handles cold weather well, and it is covered in red, white, or pink flowers from November to January.
These plants should be allowed to dry out between waterings, but they need a decent amount of humidity to flourish. It likes the light but needs more than 12 hours of darkness in the days before it blooms to encourage growth and flowering.
They are happy to remain potbound for several years but should be repotted every two to three years to keep them happy and healthy. It needs well-draining soil and temperatures between 57 and 72 degrees.
With proper care, the schlumberga truncate can live up to 100 years. These plants are often passed down from one family member to the next because of their lengthy lifespans.
