7 Christmas Houseplants Perfect for Holiday Decor

What do you think of when it comes time to decorate for Christmas? The tree, wreaths, garland, and stockings? Me too! But that doesn’t have to be all of it! Christmas houseplants can add a lot of festivity to your home with all of the different colors and variations of the plants.

When all of the foliage is gone outside, it can be really refreshing to bring a little life into your home. Christmas is a great time to upgrade your space with a new houseplant (or a few!) From decorating to gift-giving, the Christmas spirit is all around us during the holiday months. These are 7 of the best Christmas houseplants to help in your holiday decorating.

If it’s cold where you live during the winter, then it’s important to get your houseplant home to a nice environment fast without any delays in order to not shock the plant. For all of these plants listed below, be sure to bag the plant from the bottom as well as the top to not expose any of the plants to the cold.

Poinsettia

What’s Christmas without a poinsettia plant? A poinsettia houseplant is a classic for Christmas time. There are around 70 million poinsettias sold every holiday season in the United States. That’s one popular Christmas houseplant!

Believe it or not, you can make these plants bloom year after year with the proper care. Poinsettias are a tropical plant so they like a good amount of light and like to be kept around 68F during the day with lower temperatures at night, around 55-60F. Poinsettias like to be at high humidity and for the soil to be moist, but don’t overwater as this can cause wilting.

Getting this plant to bloom the following year takes a lot of extra care and the work actually starts in April. Here’s how to get it to bloom. Start letting it dry out and only giving it enough water in order for the plant to not shrivel up, starting in April. In Mid-May, you will repot the plant and prune it so the stems are 4″ high. Start watering it normally again and give it good sunlight. It will start to grow and once it does, start fertilizing every 2 weeks. Starting in July, you are going to pinch back the stems, meaning removing the new growth at the end of the stems. This encourages more flowering and a fuller plant. Continue doing this into the month of August. Starting in October, make sure the poinsettia gets at least 12 hours of complete darkness. Doing all of this will encourage the plant to bloom during the month of December.

Caladium ‘White Christmas’

The Caladium White Christmas houseplant is a beautiful houseplant with white leaves and green veins. This houseplant is perfect for you if your Christmas decor style is all white and green! With White Christmas Caladium growing to 24″ x 24″, it makes this plant perfect for an end table or sturdy shelf. If you have pets, you will not want to put this plant on the floor as it is toxic to both dogs and cats. As this plant thrives in the shade and only likes about 2-3 hours of sunlight, it could adapt to whatever lighted spot you have available to fit into your Christmas decor!

Norfolk Island Pine

Norfolk Island Pine trees are great for the holiday season as you can decorate these trees as festive as you like including ornaments, lights, and a festive wrap-around tree skirt, or whatever fits your holiday style. Norfolk Island Pines are native to the east coast of Australia and can grow up to 200 feet outdoors, but indoors they are great as a houseplant. With the right care, you will have this Norfolk Island Pine time for many Christmases to come.

The Norfolk Island Pine tree likes a lot of sunlight. In order for it to grow symmetrically, when you water the Norfolk Pine every 1-2 weeks, turn it a quarter of a turn so that way the whole tree is getting ample sunlight.

Norfolk Island Pine trees can grow up to 6′ tall in their lifetime as a houseplant. If you have a small space, it may become an overwhelming houseplant in a few years. But if you have room for this one to grow, a Norfolk could be a great houseplant for Christmas!

Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera Bridgesii)

The Christmas cactus (schlumbergera) starts blooming in December, right around Christmas which makes it perfect for a Christmas houseplant! These plants can bloom flowers in colors coral, pink, red, and white. These houseplants can live for a very long time with the proper care, so caring for it correctly is crucial to it living a healthy life!

If you keep your house below 70F, this might be a great plant for you as this Christmas cactus’s ideal temperature is 68F and maximum of 70F. This Christmas houseplant likes to stay in between 50 and 60% humidity. It also likes bright but indirect light. In the winter, the Christmas cactus will need to be watered weekly. In the summer, it will need to be watered 2-3 times a week.

Rosemary Tree (Salvia Rosmarinus)

While a rosemary tree can be a bit more difficult to care for, it would add a ton of Christmas elegance to your home. During the holiday season, rosemary trees are pruned to emulate a Christmas tree. These houseplants will give off great aromas and can even add flavoring to your favorite holiday dish! Rosemary trees like a lot of sun and cooler temperatures, so that big window you have in your house is a great place to put your rosemary tree! Rosemary trees can even handle light ornaments and LED lights that won’t give off any heat, making it perfect for some holiday cheer.

If you are looking to get a healthy rosemary tree this holiday season, keep reading. You will want to get your rosemary tree as soon as the stores start putting them out to ensure you get a healthy one. As the doors from the stores open and close, those plants get very cold. The shock of the cold can slowly kill the plant. If you are lucky enough to get a healthy rosemary, be sure to limit the temperature fluctuations while you get the plant home. Ask them to bag your rosemary tree with one bag on the base and one bag on the top of the plant. This will help to limit the exposure to the cold while you get it home. Then, make sure you get the plant home right away without any delays, pot, and give it some water!

Frosty Fern (Selaginella Kraussiana)

The frosty fern houseplant is another plant that is perfect for Christmas. It’s frosty white tips make it a perfect houseplant for Christmas time. This houseplant requires bright, indirect light so it would be great by a window that has sheer curtains.

This Christmas houseplant needs the soil to be moist in order to thrive. A good mist here and there is fine, but be sure to only water when the soil feels dry about 1″ down into the soil. If you are going to add a frosty fern to your Christmas houseplant collection, be sure to monitor the humidity levels in your home as frosty ferns like to be kept at a humidity level of 70%. This is a much higher humidity level than the average house, especially during winter when the air is very dry. So if you are looking to get a frosty fern, remember it needs more care than the standard houseplant.

Red Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema Siam Aurora)

The Aglaonema Siam Aurora is a beautiful red plant. This plant starts out small and will eventually have to become a floor plant as it will end up getting too big for a tabletop. But be careful where you place it as the leaves if ingested are toxic to humans, dogs, and cats. With the red markings on these beautiful green leaves, this houseplant is perfect to have around for the holidays!

The Red Chinese Evergreen is subject to root rot so be sure to not overwater these plants and to have proper drainage in the pot it lives in. These plants don’t like to be next to drafty windows and like to stay around 65F. Just like other common houseplants, this houseplant needs less water in the winter than in the summer. Check the soil to see if it’s dry before watering.