At home, my mother puts up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. I help, of course.

Together, we take out all of our beautiful, glittery ornaments and strings of lights and turn a plastic tree wanna-be into one of the most quintessential items of Christmas cheer. It was always set up in the family room, opposite the couch, and we had the lights turned on all day.

Whenever you were in the family room, the kitchen, or even just walking down the hallway, you would be able to catch a glimpse of the tree and feel as though Christmas was certainly coming.

At college, trees are a fire hazard. Practical, but very reminiscent of Scrooge and all things to kill Christmas cheer. The hallways are grey and bland as always, and Christmas doesn’t feel like it’s happening, let alone less than a month away at times. However, it’s possible to still get in the Christmas spirit, it’s just a little more unorthodox and definitely looks like it was done by a broke, tight-budgeted college student.

My roommate and I had had fairy lights in our room all semester (mostly to avoid turning on our ugly fluorescent lights), so our room could already be considered almost festive. We each ordered some cheap colorful strands from Amazon just to make it a little more festive, and two days later they were here. We also read back through the rulebook, and figured out only real trees were banned as fire hazards, so my roommate, the gem, brought three feet of plastic and set it on top of our microwave.

For three dollars, we bought a roll of wrapping paper and spent an hour or so one afternoon painstakingly taping it in sheets to our door. No longer grey and bland, it not only added more Christmas spirit to our floor as it was visible in the hallway but also added more spirit to our room as we almost always have our door open. Playing Christmas carols over Spotify and working together to do this, it was reminiscent of me and my mom listening to Christmas carols on TV at home while decorating the tree. Not only did it make our door more flashy, but our neighbors, after commenting “What a great idea!” put up a decorated door of their own, with ribbon to boot.

I was also able to use the last bits of our wrapping paper and their wrapping paper to wrap my Secret Santa gift for our floor friend group. Once I was finished, it looked very Christmas-y, albeit a little haphazard in appearance. All in all, just because you’re away at college and missing the traditions you’ve established with your parents, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make traditions of your own and do things to celebrate with your friends. Truthfully, it’s just another one of those things that are going to make college really start to feel like home.