The holiday season is a great time for property managers and owners to bring warmth and cheer to their communities, transforming common areas into joyful places that foster a sense of togetherness. From incorporating thoughtful design to creating a multi-sensory experience or simply thanking your residents, the holidays represent a great time to create a shared experience that shows the true magic of this season.
“Festivity needs to be integrated into all aspects of a community during the holiday season, including both decoration that evokes a feeling of celebration and a complementary social atmosphere,” mentioned Phil Lavoie, COO of Gotham Organization. This year at The Suffolk, a 30-story community in NYC’s Lower East Side, the developers have curated a special list of events and opted for holiday-themed decor focused on color and scent.
You can celebrate the holidays in many ways in your communities, so here’s a list of tips you can implement to truly embrace the holiday spirit.
Deck the halls with style
This time of the year offers you the opportunity to add some more color to your communities and experiment with design elements. Wreaths, shimmering lights, or joyous centerpieces are just a few elements that showcase the holiday spirit and create a sense of warmth. Of course, don’t forget about the Christmas tree or any other inspired installations you can add to your spaces.
For instance, The Suffolk’s halls were carefully decorated to match the JGNA’s design of the property, as the community already has a dramatic lobby with a vaulted, arched ceiling. “The existing décor is intentionally sparse but carefully curated. Rather than installing cookie-cutter holiday décor, we opted for a more curated look, complementing the existing palette of reds and greens with evergreens, red berries, poinsettias, and a monotone tree that is overflowing in red ornaments,” added Lavoie.
At City Ridge, Roadside Development’s community in Northwest D.C., the developers have also come up with some ideas for the holiday season. “We decked our neighborhood out in holiday decor and festive lights including our tree and menorah on the Great Lawn and invited community members to City Ridge for our second annual family-friendly tree lighting ceremony and holiday market. Each of our residential building lobbies is also decorated for the holidays,” Richard Lake, principal at Roadside Development, said.
Pro Tip: Don’t hesitate to use natural materials
Think about holiday decor but with a natural twist! There are many elements, such as fruits, berries, or cones that you can easily integrate into your communities. “Garlands made of dried cranberries, oranges or popcorn are visually pleasing and make for a fun, seasonal activity to get into a festive mood,” Jean-Gabriel Neukomm, founding principal at JGNA, said. “Colorful or other organic elements like gumdrops and pinecones are also an easy way to enhance a space.”
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Enchant all the senses with a multi-sensory experience
One way to enhance the festive atmosphere at your communities is by trying to appeal to multiple senses, through a combination of light, scent, or sounds. To incorporate a festive touch, you can play light seasonal music in common areas or create a cozy ambiance with certain holiday-specific aromas, such as gingerbread, cinnamon, or pine. You can use scented candles or essential oil diffusers strategically placed within your community.
“A multi-sensory experience during the holiday season can be achieved by striking a perfect balance between light, colors and scents,” Neukomm added. “The importance of lighting is incredibly important during the winter as it’s darker out, and well-placed string lights or subtle spot lighting can be utilized to create a warm background glow in spaces within your apartment.”
More so, he believes that developers and designers can also experiment more with scents, which are usually under-appreciated in design but can easily improve the living experience. The Suffolk has a signature scent that immediately captures the senses upon entering the lobby. The saffron suede scent is warm, soft and luxurious with notes of purple saffron flower, sage, patchouli wood and white suede, he explained.
“During the holiday season, dried fruit like orange slices, conifer branches, a small wreath, or dried flowers are wonderful options and can be placed in a bowl with additional ornaments as another means of decoration,” Neukomm said.
Host holiday-inspired community events
The holiday season is the time when you can bring residents together and foster a sense of harmony and joy. A tree-lighting ceremony, a community caroling session, or a potluck event would be some events you can host with your residents and bring them together. Moreover, the holidays are also a great time of the year to make those events fun and inclusive.
The developers of The Suffolk, for example, held a holiday happy hour and a market at Gotham Point, where people could meet and buy gifts from local artists. On the other hand, you can also partner with local businesses, as Roadside Development did at City Ridge. The developers partnered with King Street Oyster Bar and created a seasonal menu, as well as hosted a cookie decorating class and a holiday party.
“For mixed-use communities, partnering with local businesses is key to creating a unified, holiday feel. During the holiday season, City Ridge supplements signature events like our community holiday market and tree lighting ceremony with residents-only events to continue holiday cheer within the residential community and its local businesses,” Lake said. “Providing prime holiday event space is key to creating a festive feel. Community members are also able to rent out our rooftop restaurant, The Ridge Club, to host corporate and private events.”
