How to Decorate Your Home Exterior for the Holidays

Most people adore the holiday season. There’s plenty of good food, cheer, family time, and decorations to enjoy. However, it can be a bit difficult to come up with the perfect exterior look for your home. You have to consider safety, functionality, and style.

Safety and Functionality Considerations

Above all, keep safety in mind when planning your holiday decorations. This applies to the installation process, but it’s also important for the decorations themselves. Never use lights or other decorations that are damaged – they can cause dangerous shorts, injuries, or even fires. Check each strand before you add it to your home. Also, don’t connect more than three strands of lights together or you run the risk of overloading your outlets.

Keep children, pets, and wild animals in mind when selecting your decorations. Steer clear of anything sharp or ingestible, and try to place things out of reach whenever possible. You should supervise when your family or pets are around your decorations.

Ladder and electrical safety is important, too. Always use common sense by having a tall enough ladder and plugging things up only after they’re fully installed. Use a spotter to hold the base of the ladder so that it stays balanced and on level ground.

Style Choices

As long as your decorations follow these safety guidelines, you have freedom to place them wherever you like. Some popular ideas can help your home look like a Pinterest project so you can stand out and spread the cheer.

• Focus on the entrance. Everyone coming through your house will experience the cheer when you decorate the door and landing. Double wreaths, lantern garland, and stacked logs all convey holiday warmth and charm.
• Use small evergreens. These little trees can be placed just about anywhere from your walkway to the front porch. Go rustic with galvanized or wooden tubs or select sleek modern planters.
• Spruce up your mailbox. A few simple touches like evergreen sprigs, twine, and a plaid bow will show off your festive spirit to everyone who passes.
• Don’t forget the windowsills. Giant outdoor ornaments, old skates, lights and garland – all these things make wonderful additions to your windows. This is especially true if you have flower boxes that are empty for the season.
• Light your trees and shrubs. You can spend money on metal trees, or you can just accent the ones already in your yard. There are countless color and shape choices to help you show off your greenery.

Whatever styles you like, use some common sense and creativity, and you’ll have a wonderfully decorated house for the holidays.