It’s that time of year again. The Halloween decorations are put away and the pile of leftover candy is starting to dwindle. It’s now time to start planning for the next big holiday… Christmas! The sooner you can get started the better. The stores are fully stocked with all the latest decorations, lights, projectors, inflatables and more! The weather is also not getting any better so you want to take advantage of any warm days you can. Not only is the colder weather hard on your hands when you are trying to put up lights, it also makes the plastic more brittle, which leads to broken clips and more trips to the store.
Now all you have to decide is how crazy you are going to go with your decorations. I know if my wife had her way, I would be going full Clark Griswold every year. I don’t know where to get 25,000 imported Italian twinkle lights, but I will recommend some easier to get options for your house and yard.
1. Lights
A must for any house at Christmas, there is nothing better than coming down your street at night and see your house glowing in the distance! There are many types of lights available, such as icicle lights, strand lights, strip lights, and they come in many different colors. The choice is entirely yours, but here are a few things to remember:
- Measure the length of the run of lights, nothing looks worse than your lights ending part way across your roof
- I would recommend getting lights with the clips built in. They are so much easier to put up, and you won’t have to worry about dropping the clips as you try to put them on the strand of lights
- Remember what shade of “white” lights you bought… there is bright white, cool white, warm white… if a strand goes out and you have to buy more, you want to get the same color
- Getting a timer/light sensor is a great help, but you need to be careful where you put it. The sensor will turn the lights on when it gets dark, and turn them off after a set number of hours, but if your sensor is too close to outdoor lights such as a porch light, when that light is turned on, the sensor will think it is daytime and turn your Christmas lights off!
2. Lawn Ornaments
Once your house is all lit up, it’s time to turn your attention to the front lawn. There are many different options for lawn ornaments as well. They can be inflatable characters or animals, more solid decorations made out of plastics or metal, and even candy cane lights. Here are a few helpful hints for Lawn Ornaments:
- Make sure your extension cord has multiple outlets at the end as each lawn ornament that is lit will have its own plug. Some of them are made to plug into each other which does help
- Make sure you stake the ornaments into the ground well, and use any support ropes for inflatables, as you don’t want them to blow away
- Try to connect the extension cords to a time the same as your house lights to make turning them on and off easier
- If you get a heavy snowfall, clear off any inflatables before you plug them in so that you don’t hurt the motor
3. Projectors
A fun way to add motion to your display is with a projector. You simply place it on the lawn, and point it at a wall of your house. They can project snowflakes, or stars, or other shapes in various colors and patterns. You can get simple single function ones or more hi-tech projectors that you can control remotely. The sky is the limit! Here is one example of a projector, but there are many more to choose from if you click the link.
4. Extension cords and Timers
To make your life easier, you should invest in good quality extension cords and timers for your lights. Nothing looks worse that a bunch of different colored short extension cords chained together in your yard. You should get one good long outdoor extension cord with as many outlets at the end to run from your timer to the location of your lawn ornaments. Most timers only have one outlet to plug into so you will need everything you want to turn on automatically to run through that one extension cord.
As I stated in the lights section, the placement of your timer is important if you are using the light sensor function to turn the lights on as soon as it gets dark. My motion sensor lights on my porch caused all sorts of problems with my light sensor so I had to run the lights off an outlet at the back of the house away from the porch lights.
5. Extra Clips for Lights
I highly recommend getting strings of lights with the clips already built in as it makes putting them up so much easier. If you can’t find the built in clip strings, you will have to buy the clips separately. If you can find the hinged type, they are very easy to clip to the eaves of your house or the edge of the roof. If at all possible, try to get enough clips for one on each light, as that will give a much straighter line of lights and look much better. You will want to get some extra clips as they do tend to break in the cold weather, and in the past I had the unfortunate experience of the store not having any green clips left and having to get white instead. I ended up replacing every second green clip with a white one just to make it look intentional.
Decorating the outside of your house for Christmas is a great yearly tradition. If properly stored, your lights and ornaments should last for a few years. You may have to replace a string of lights here or there, and a broken clip here or there, but you should also be able to add more decorations each year to make your display even better. It is always fun to drive around town to check out other displays and get ideas for your own. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
This site contains product affiliate links. We may receive a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links.
