Our move to a new home a few months ago prompted us to figure out new placements for our indoor holiday decorations and, of course, we faced the same dilemma with our outdoor seasonal decor.
Outdoor Holiday Lights
Even though our landscaping is far from complete, my husband rose to the challenge of outdoor decorating again this year, although not nearly as extensively as some prior years due to the unfinished landscape and a run of bitter cold weather. The exterior holiday lights, however, are a constant carryover of his traditional annual decorating.
Outdoor lights always fall fully into my husband’s domain – he’s particular about the color combinations of the bulbs, the straightness of the run and he loves to mix large colored bulbs with small white lights. I’m happy to let him handle it – I’d rather fiddle with the decorations inside.
Colored and white strands go up in October for Halloween but bulb changes keep the strands current for holidays through March.
If you or someone in your family enjoys lights as much as my husband, perhaps this decorating trick of his will tickle your fancy. The lights you see in the photo above are our Christmas lights – but he actually put the light strings up in mid-October and instead of the multi-color bulbs shown in the photo, he alternated large white and orange bulbs above the white string lights for Halloween. When we packed away the Halloween decorations he changed the large white bulbs to large red bulbs - and the red and orange lights combo ushered in the Thanksgiving holiday. After Thanksgiving he replaced the red and orange lights with the multi-colored bulbs shown in the photo. The multi-color lights brighten the darkness through the New Year. The lights remain hanging but unlit through much of January until he changes the multi-colored bulbs to red and white in early February as a welcome for Valentine’s Day. And in March, as you probably guessed, he swaps the red lights for green so we enjoy green and white lights for St. Patrick’s Day.
I’m glad to say my husband isn’t one of those folks who leaves Christmas lights hanging all year long, just waiting for the next Christmas to roll around. After St. Patrick’s Day he replaces the green bulbs with orange before storing the strings, so they’re ready to hang again 7 months later. There’s no doubt, however, he certainly makes good use of his original efforts of hanging the strands in October and then simply changing out bulb colors until March. Meanwhile, I enjoy creating holiday door decorations to match the colorful lights as a cheerful welcome for guests through the darkest months.
Tomorrow I’ll share a bit more about our outdoor holiday decor this year and I’d love to hear about yours and see a photo of your outdoor decorating traditions or new ideas.
Don’t Forget Our Drawing!
Remember – we’ve got a holiday drawing scheduled! Send us a photo of your favorite tree ornament attached to a brief note telling us why it’s special to you and you’ll be entered in our random holiday drawing. You might win the 16″ X 16″ French burlap pillow cover provided by Petit Coterie, ETSY.
Win this French burlap pillow by sharing a photo of a favorite tree ornament.
Send your email and photo attachment to solutions@yourdecoratinghotline.comby December 22. We’ll announce the winner on December 24th.
By the way, we’re participating in Inspired Room’s holiday link party so if you click through you’ll find links to lots of other people’s homes and decorating ideas. It’s truly a treat.
Happy Holidays!
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