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Christmas is right around the corner (says every blogger ever in at least one blog post they write in November) and whether you’re epically excited about presents, food, and day drinking being ok for a few days or would genuinely rather it all went away quickly, you probably can’t avoid Christmas entirely whether your like it or not!
When the boss shouted over “write some Christmas stuff, will you?” This morning, my immediate response was like, “uh, hello? We’re a blinds company? Hardly a seasonal product, is it, you absolute donut.” Only, I said this very quietly obviously, because nobody wants a P45 as their secret Santa gift, do they.
Anyway. When I’d done my coffee and had some chocolate, I warmed up to the idea a little bit, largely because I realised that creating a blog post on window blinds and Christmas meant I could spend inordinate amounts of time Downstairs. This is where several other kindred spirits reside who also enjoy playing with stuff and breaking things, as well as obviously disturbing R&D, a pursuit that everyone except from R&D enjoys too.
I ultimately managed to long this out into three days of investigation and study, in order to provide you with this definitive guide to Christmas, decorations, and window blinds, including some tips and tricks on how to decorate window blinds, and also things not to do if you want your blinds to live to the new year as well.
Read on then, for tips and tricks on window blinds, Christmas decorations, and so on.
Think about the operation of the blind before you attach anything to it
If you have blinds that are permanently left in either the open or closed position; first up, you’re actually shortening their lifespan, because leaving a blind in one position for ages can sometimes cause it to stiffen up and the operating mechanism to eventually seize up.
That aside, I’m assuming that most folk open/close/adjust their blinds regularly, and that you’re still going to want to do this at Christmas, if only so that burglars can’t see in and/or you can block out the ridiculously bright lighting display from the Joneses over the road who clearly are not feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis if they’re running all that lot off the mains.
This means then that if you had plans to attach or hang or stick anything directly to your blind, this is probably not going to play out well.
For a one-piece fabric blind like a roller blind, Roman blind, or day and night blind, these all fold or roll up to open them, and so obstructions stuck, pinned, or tied to the fabric of the blind itself are going to stop them from operating smoothly and possibly cause them to jam or even become damaged.
For slatted and louvred blinds like wooden blinds, faux-wood blinds, Venetian blinds and vertical blinds, the surface of the slats or louvres aren’t really going to be any good to attach or stick anything to anyway. On a blind made of a hard material, unless you plan to glue something to the parts of the slats that are always exposed in any position (which seems like a great way to permanently damage the finish of your blind) you have very little space to work on, and vertical blinds are both vertical and made of fabric which again, I can’t see a workable option for here.
Also, the blind’s control chain or cord isn’t really a viable spot to hang anything from or attach anything to either, as this will move when in operation.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that there’s not a good/viable way to stick or attach anything to the material or control mechanism of a blind and have it continue to work and avoid damage.
Check for clearance for the blind if you put ornaments on the windowsill
If you want to put a load of gaudy Christmas tat delightful festive ornaments on your windowsill, check for clearance for the blind to close when you do this. This isn’t likely to be an issue for blinds hung outside of the window recess, but for blinds hung inside of it, keep the ornaments clear of where the blind will fall when it is closed, or for vertical blinds, for the rotation of the louvres and the stacks of louvres at the sides when the blind is open to sit unobstructed.
Handy Christmas window blinds hack: how to reverse the direction that your roller blind rolls in to provide added clearance for window decorations
Want to stick Christmassy stuff to your windows? Perhaps hang something from the top of the window or put a sign on the glass? If your window blind is hung inside of the recess and there’s not a gap between the blind and the glass (such as you might already have if you have protruding handles on your windows) your décor might get in the way of the blind.
However! If you have roller blinds, you can reverse the direction that these roll in to offer a few inches of additional space between glass and blind, which will generally be enough to provide clearance for ornaments.
Can you make window blinds look festive but remain safe and functional?
If you find that your closed blind forms one big, un-festive blank space in your otherwise grotto’d up Christmas room, there is one way to make your blinds festive without damage, and this is to project a Christmassy image onto them! Small mains or battery-operated Christmas projectors are sold by all sorts of places that do a reasonable range of lights and ornament, coming with slides such as snowflakes or Santa on the move and so on.
These look particularly awesome projected onto plain blinds.
Be mindful of the heat generated from any lights or light-up ornaments near your blinds
Lights or light-up decorations in or around your window or on your windowsill can get somewhat warm. The chances of anything like this getting hot enough to actually ignite anything is vanishingly rare, and many UK window blinds are often treated with a special fire-retardant coating too.
However, even with that in mind, I suggest making sure that any hot light or other source of heat isn’t in direct contact with the fabric of the blind, particularly if the light/heat-generating item in question came from a market stall that was only there for a week and that looked as if its specialism was selling toys that are toxic to children.
A hot light (or even hot plug) could potentially eventually melt fabrics like PVC or vinyl (the materials used for waterproof roller and vertical blinds) and faux-wood blinds can warp and become damaged from contact or long-term exposure to temperatures over 50 degrees Celsius.
And of course, even flame-retardant fabrics aren’t completely invulnerable to heat and fire, which is why you don’t see fire fighters running into burning buildings wrapped in polka dot roller blind fabrics and beating said fires out with faux-wood blind slats.
Don’t do anything that’s going to mark or permanently damage your blind
This is good advice to follow in general; even if the kids don’t think so. For instance, you might use water-soluble paints or temporary sprays to decorate or put designs onto your windows themselves, but these aren’t going to come out of a non-waterproof blind without damaging it.
Pinning or even sewing things to the fabric of a blind will leave pinholes in the fabric, which might well be enough to ruin the full blackout ability of a blind, or for waterproof blinds, stop it being fully waterproof.
Don’t do anything that might make the blind unsafe
I’m thinking here largely of things you might be considering doing to or hanging from the control cord or chain for the blind. Most things that I could think of that you might do in this respect (like wrapping tinsel around the cord or hanging baubles from it) are going to cause problems with the operation of the blind; but many of them could quite feasibly affect the various safety features that are in place to prevent choking and hanging.
For instance, tinsel or ribbon woven or wrapped around a control cord or chain might serve to negate the functionality of the breakaway fitting, meaning that the cord or chain would not come apart under pressure. If you hang things from the cleat designed to secure and tidy away the control cord or chain, this might either make the chain/cord not fit onto it, or make it difficult to put it in place or likely to unravel.
These are all theoretical and worst-case scenario type of things, but I am a naturally anxious person and I suspect that most parents are too when it comes to child safety (and blinds or anything else).
Don’t add anything on or around your blind that might attract extra attention from pets
Want to hang baubles from the bottom bar of your blind? AWESOME NEW CAT TOY, DUDE! I strongly suggest not attaching anything to your blind/doing anything to the blind that will attract the attention of pets, be that cats or dogs, for reasons that I am sure are obvious if you actually have cats or dogs.
You’re probably going to have to write off the Christmas tree if you can’t protect it, don’t throw the blinds under the bus as well.
Oh, and if you were thinking something like hanging chocolate ornaments on the blind’s bottom bar, remember that this is a Very Bad Idea if this would place them within reach of your dog.
Can you spray fake snow on window blinds?
I suggest not doing this. Anyone that’s ever used “temporary” fake snow on their actual windows will need no convincing. If the blind is fabric/non-waterproof, this is probably going to destroy the blind cosmetically, or if and when you try to remove it, functionally too.
If your blind is made of a waterproof fabric, you’ll probably be able to get the fake snow off the blind; but how’s that going to work? Spray the blind when it’s in the closed position, but when you open it, the fabric is going to move/roll, and the fake snow will crack off everywhere.
For blinds that are waterproof and made of hard materials like aluminium or faux-wood, again, you’re probably not going to cause damage but man are you going to regret your decision when it comes to cleaning it off those narrow fiddly slats.
Can you spray glitter onto window blinds?
Wow, you have glitter? Glitter is the devil. It is known as “the herpes of the craft world” for a reason, and that reason is that it gets everywhere, sticks to everything, and can never be removed in full.
So yeah you can (same caveat as above regarding not doing this to non-waterproof blinds) but oh man, why would you.
Can you hang Christmas baubles from window blinds?
Well. Not from the fabric of the blind itself (both for functional reasons and because pinning or sticking them to the fabric will damage it) but possibly from say, the bottom bar of a roller blind, or tied around the slats of a slatted blind that is never opened as high as the level of the baubles and that is tilted with care.
I do suggest though that this is apt to be fiddly and something of a let-down if you do manage it.
Can you hang or wrap tinsel around window blinds?
When it comes to blinds with slats, you can wrap tinsel around their slats without causing them harm, but this will stop the blind from being able to be closed and will limit your ability to tilt the slats.
If you’re talking about blinds in an office or a room you only use during the day (and so, don’t need to close) then this should be ok, as long as you take care.
You could also theoretically hang tinsel vertically along the louvres of vertical blinds, with the same caveat on the blind being kind of committed to the position it’s in from there on in.
Can you put Christmas decorations on top of a window blind’s support rail or bar?
If this is a moving part, like the roller bar of a roller blind, then no. If it’s a static part, like the headrail of a vertical blind or any kind of pelmet over the blind, then yes, as long as they fit and aren’t apt to be vibrated off if you operate the blind at speed!
Can you get Christmas-themed window blinds?
Window blinds aren’t really a seasonal item, both due to their cost and the commitment involved in fitting blinds if you would only keep in place for a few weeks of the year.
Whilst I am sure you can indeed get Christmas-themed window blinds, they’re not something you’ll find widely offered for sale in Christmas fabrics.
About the closest you could get if you were committed to the theme would be to pick dark green or deep red roller blinds, or blinds in other colours we usually associate with Christmas!
