The natural spruce-fir coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forests in Wangqing Forestry Bureau of Jilin Province were taken as the research object, and four representative square fixed plots of 1 hm² were set up with a cutting intensity of 0, 6.29%, 11.22% and 21.21%. The standing crop of litter under various cutting intensities was measured, and the water holding capacity (maximum water holding capacity, maximum water holding rate, effective retention capacity, etc.) of litter at different decomposition stages was studied using an indoor immersion method. The results showed that:(1) The total standing crop of litter in the four cutting intensities was between 29.04 and 35.26 t/hm². (2) With the increase of cutting intensities, the maximum water holding capacity and effective interception capacity of litter in the fresh horizon and complete decomposed horizon decreased first, then increased and decreased again, whereas the opposite trend was found for the litter in the semi-decomposed horizon. (3) The cutting intensity had no significant effect on the water holding capacity of litter, but the decomposition stage had a significant impact on it. The two-way analysis of variance showed that the interaction between the cutting intensity and the decomposition stage had a significant influence on the water holding capacity of litter. (4) The regression fitting indicated that there was a logarithmic function relationship between the water holding capacity, water holding rate and immersion time of litter in each decomposition stage under different cutting intensities, and there was a power function relationship between water absorption rate and immersion time before the litter reached the saturation state. Therefore, moderate cutting would not have a significant negative impact on the water holding capacity of the litter, the decomposition stage was an important factor affecting the water holding capacity of the litter in the spruce-fir coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest, and the interaction of decomposition stage and cutting intensity could significantly affect the water holding capacity of litter.