Yes, you’ve got finals. Depending on whether or not you’re staying at school, you might even have a little packing to do—and definitely some laundry after all of that cramming. But you can still find a little time to make your dorm festive for the holidays if you really want to.

Tiny Christmas trees are perfect for dorms. Have you seen the new ones they’re making that stray from the normal green and white? They now come in pink, blue, black, red, and other colors, so you’re likely to find one that you love and that works with your current décor.

If you’re like me, you’ve got lights up year-round anyway, so you might just keep those going. However, maybe you can switch—how about giant bulbs, or groovy LED lights? I always had star-shaped lights up, so if you do something like that maybe you could just add another strand of multicolored light up around those.

If you’re an art major—or just feel like making something—you could make your own giant cut-outs of Santa, Frosty, or whomever you want and hang them up. If you don’t want to go that far, just pick up some window cling-ons for a buck and stick them on your mirror and windows. If you have plants, a fish tank, or anything like that in your room, you can drape tinsel around them to make them look more festive. (Not ON them, of course—you don’t want Moby Dick to accidentally eat some glitter and die!)

One cool thing to do if you have a pillar or column in your room (which I despised having initially!) is to hang little ornaments on it, or to drape it with different colors of tinsel. Put some white glittery tinsel up and alternate it with a black boa for a fem-Beetlejuice effect. Who says Tim Burton gets to have all the fun with stripes?

Of course, you could always take a breather from studying and make some quick snowflakes with your roommate. Origami stars are also quick to make and festive on a tiny tree or around a mirror.

If your hall is having a door decorating contest, definitely get in on that—and if not, just take the initiative to do it yourself for fun. (I bet I could have made Mr. Hanky out of a toilet paper tube…) Try covering the whole door with butcher paper and then adding your decorations to it. One year I made Christmas South Park characters to go over my door. Another cool idea is to wrap small boxes in Christmas paper and tape them all over the door.