Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Decorating The Outside Of Our House For Christmas

This holiday season is full of firsts for us. It’s the first time Clara can shout things like “I love you Santa!” to the inflatables at Home Depot (this actually happens quite often). It’s also the first time we got a real tree (even if it’s of the tabletop variety). And it’s our first real Christmas in this house (we moved last December but were still living out of boxes then). But perhaps our biggest first is actually decorating the outside of our house. We’ve never done that. Isn’t that crazy? What the heck were we waiting for? There’s definitely some magic to waiting until it gets dark, plugging everything in, and stepping back to see things glow. We should have done this years ago!

Front Mid Yard1

Since it’s our first outdoor decorating foray, it’s hardly one of those amazing every-inch-of-the-house-is-lit-up things. But we had some fun dipping our feet into the outdoor decorating pond by:

  • adding white candle lights in every window (from Ben Franklin)
  • hanging three glowing stars from the porch at varied heights (from amazon.com)
  • turning an outdoor evergreen next to our driveway into an outdoor Christmas tree with red and white lights (from Target last year on clearance after Christmas)
  • tossing more of those “candy cane lights” (aka: red and white lights) over the bushes that lead to the front door
  • stuffing three red over-sized metal lanterns with white lights on the porch (from Ikea)
  • adding two glossy red reindeer to the window (from Ben Franklin and altered with spray paint)
  • making a square wreath with four sticks from the yard (and a faux boxwood garland from Ben Franklin)

Here’s a close shot of the porch so you can see the glossy red reindeer flanking a candle in the window with the tree glowing in the background and the hanging stars on the porch reflecting in the window:

In Window Shot

Let’s step back a little so you an see a bit more of those hanging stars on the porch and some of the red & white lights in those bushes. The cool thing about hanging the stars at varied heights in front of the picture window is that their reflection doubles them- so from certain angles it looks like we have six glittering oversized stars floating over the porch instead of three.

Porch Cropped1

Oh and although in person the whole red & white thing is clear, for some reason the white lights all look green in these pics (probably because they’re picking up the green in the bushes). So pretend everything is bright white and shiny red- it’s a really fun outdoor palette since so many houses are doing the all white thing- sort of looks retro and bold with our little ranch.

Here’s a super far shot from the curb where you can see our cute little evergreen-turned-Christmas-tree next to the carport. Wasn’t he just dying for some lights? And adding more red and white lights to the bushes leading to the front door sort of balanced things out.

Outside Far

Here’s a closer Christmas tree shot…

Tree Close Up

And here’s our little tree from the side (man do those white lights look green- so funny):

Side Of Porch Far

As you walk closer to the porch you can see the three red over-sized lanterns that we got from Ikea for $11 a pop.

Side Of Porch2

At first we chatted about using real white pillar candles (or battery operated ones) in each lantern, but then came up with the idea of shoving a ton of white lights in each one for a festive glowing effect. So glad we did.

Lanterns Close

We just ran an extension cord to get power over to them, and each lantern has a string of white lights in it (so there are three total, that are joined together in a chain, and powered by the extension cord).

Lanterns Closer

Oh and get this: apparently our neighborhood has “Secret Neighborhood Spirit Elves” who left a thank you note in our mailbox for decorating. How cute is that? Seriously, we were smitten by that unexpected little note of appreciation.

Here’s a good shot of the three hanging stars (we used plant hooks to hang them from the inside of the porch’s scalloped header).

Vertical Window

We got these guys on amazon.com a few months back on sale (I think they’re called Moravian stars if that helps you hunt them down):

Stars Close

They’re actually made of hard plastic and you assemble them by snapping each of the spikes into place.

Stars Close2

Here’s a close up shot of our red and white lights… which again look red and green. Haha. We learned that these guys are called “candy-cane lights” – charming name, right? We thought that was cute.

Lights Detail

Oh and I mentioned that I made a little square wreath with sticks from the yard, so here’s the scoop…

Wreath 1 After

I just collected four sticks that were pretty straight and broke them over my knee so they were all the same length. Then I grabbed a faux boxwood garland at a local craft store (Ben Franklin) which was 50% off (down from twelve bucks to $6). I already had green floral wire at home, so those were all the materials that I used (pardon the bad iPhone pic, John was using the good camera to photograph kitchen stuff for yesterday’s post):

Wreath Before

As you can probably guess, I just used the floral wire to connect the four twigs in each corner to make a rough-but-charmingly-rustic square wreath shape with the sticks. Then I just wrapped the faux boxwood garland around it. Here’s a shot of the corner of the wreath that’s connected with wire (this detail is covered by the garland, but I pulled it away for this shot to show you how it’s all held together):

Wreath Wire

Oh and I already had that red “kissing ball” from a few years back (it was a sweet gift from John’s mom) which I thought looked fun in the middle of the wreath. I didn’t even have to hang a hook since it rests over the base of the door knocker. And the square wreath itself rests on the top of the door knocker, so no 3M hooks were harmed in the making of this wreath. Haha.

Wreath Front After

Oh and for anyone wondering how our oil-rubbed bronze door knocker and handle and deadbolt are holding up (more on that project here), as you can see from the pic above, they’re all still looking mint!

So yes, we are thoroughly enjoying the festive outside stuff we hung, set out, and strung up for the first time! I even named our $6 wreath Charlie because he’s kinda minimal and sparse, like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree…

Wreath Side

And now back to those red reindeer. I found these guys at Ben Franklin when I was buying the clearance faux boxwood garland to make Charlie. At $4 a pop I couldn’t resist (they’re giant – maybe two feet tall each). They were sort of a flat brown bag color when I got them and looked to be made of paper mache. So I thought making them super shiny and bright could be fun. So one $3.50 can of high-glossy “Sunrise Red” spray paint later…

Reindeer Before

… and those babies were glossy and ceramic-animal-esque. Clara is obsessed. She can now say “red reindeer” and usually looks outside beyond them and shouts “Santa’s coming!” Not kidding. This kid is excited with a capital E.

In Window Shot

Have you guys decorated the outside of your house? Have you ever made a wreath from sticks? Are you as crazy about square wreaths as I am? Might just be me, but I love how different they feel. Sorta modern and angular. And how about them reindeer? Are you surprised I tried my hand at bright red spray paint? I must admit, I kind of surprised myself with that choice. But I love the super bright color – so festive!

Update: You can check out all of our favorite holiday decor finds here – many of which are under $15! 

Comments

  2. Gracy says

    wowww.. its amazing.. i really love your deco… full of positivity and so festive!!!

    well.. i would like to ask for ur suggestion… i hv bought one bar.. and the color is wood (light brown).. and my other furniture color is dark brown.. well i am planing to paint that bar in dark brown so that it will match my other furniture.. is that good idea? if yes.. what would be the best paint?? spray paint or something else?

    please suggest me!!

    regards

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Dark brown would definitely go. You could also do a black or ebony finish (those look nice when they’re layered) or even paint it white for some contrast (we mix white furniture with dark brown all the time). We have a “how to paint furniture” tutorial on our Projects page for ya (see the link under our blog header?). Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  4. Marina says

    My manly-man friend (the one who helped me make decorative pillows becuase he has a sewing machine and mad sewing skills) has made a peacock feather wreath, WHAT? He had a few feathers around the house from his last trip to the mainland and decided they’d make a brillant wreath, and they do! Awesome!

    Reply

  6. Caitlin @ Hardly Housewives says

    Love the decorations! We are the only people on our street who haven’t decorated yet. It’s our first Christmas in this house (or in any house at all – we were in a 3rd floor walk up in Brooklyn Heights before), so I’m hoping they cut us some slack.

    I caved today and bought some exterior lights and 2 small Christmas trees for our front porch – Target has stuff on sale already. For the rest of our outside decor, I’m going to wait until after Christmas when stores have everything marked down.

    Reply

  7. Roxana says

    i love the lanterns and the stars they are so cute and modern looking. and how awesome to live in a neighborhood where things like that are appreciated and welcomed.

    Reply

  8. Tineke Galvan says

    Random question…. When you replace your knobs on things like when you put int the yellow ones…. do you trim the backs shorter. My Anthropologie ones came with really long bolts… How would you go about shortening them???

    Thanks.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We haven’t had to do that yet, but you can use an inexpensive hack saw from a home improvement store to cut down the back of the screw if it’s too long! Good luck!

      xo,
      s

  10. Tracie says

    Let me tell you right now: your red reindeer are rockin’! A Ben Franklin store?? Not fair! I loved the one in our town as a teen for cosmetics and crafts, but it left years ago:(
    I’m obviously missing out on a lot:) My 10-yr. old daughter says “hello” and sends kisses to Burger, her fave part of your blog. Happy Holidays to all!

    Reply

  11. Melissa Evans says

    I love those red reindeer: EXCELLENT DIY project and the red lanterns, with lights in them: AWESOME.

    I was so happy to hear that someone left you a note in your mailbox…regarding your lights….that’s SUCH a nice thing to do. :)

    Reply

  13. Jennah says

    We have a very small house, so this is year 3 that we haven’t done a tree inside (and I LOVE it). But I’ve always enjoyed outdoor lights and we still do those. And of our 2 trees we have done since we’ve been married and in this house, the one with candycane lights was my favorite! I actually wanted to do that on our potted evergreens outside this year, but had a hard time finding a string of only red lights (we already have white on there).

    Also, if you don’t have a timer, it’s well worth it! The lights come on whether we’re there or not, can stay on a bit later, turn off, and then come back on for a couple people to enjoy during their AM commute. And they’re only like $10-$20.

    Reply

  15. amy says

    Thought I’d share a funny.
    So I just started scrolling through the pics first and looked next to the list. When I read “White candles in every window (ben franklin).” I thought. How neat, I didn’t realize Ben Franklin was the first one to put white candles in the window at christmas. Duh! I figured it out by the next… (ok, third)… BF reference.
    Decorating looks great. Love all the fun touches!
    Amy

    Reply

  18. Cindy says

    Sherry, John, and Clara: I think that your home looks perfect…just the right amount of decorations. We use a timer for all of our Christmas decorations…the window lights, and all the outside lighting. We don’t have to worry about being home to turn the lights on, and when it is cold outside, we don’t have to run out to plug/unplug the cord. Cindy

    Reply

  19. Janet says

    Looks great! I have a neighbor who left an ornament at each house in the neighborhood in lieu of a Christmas card. It took a few years to figure out who was doing it, but it was so fun to see those bright shiny ball ornaments in everyone’s bushes!!

    Reply

  20. Heidi P. says

    Love the reindeer! They almost look swedish! (Have you seen those? Know what I’m talking about?) And love the stars!!! And love the wreath! And love the lights! Those lights for some reason make it look like you full-on decorated a christmas tree outside :D. (At first I thought the red were ornaments ;) And what awesome secret elf neighbors!!

    I had a few questions, but now I can only remember two: Are you guys sending out Christmas cards? / Will you post what they look like? (that’s one question ;) And how do you discipline Clara when she does something she’s not supposed to? Do you have different methods for different circumstances? (like if she throws her food vs. if she does something potentially dangerous)
    Thanks!

    Good luck w/ the book stuff, etc!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha- yes, we have already sent them out, and will post it on our blog on Christmas (just to be sure our family receives theirs before we spoil the surprise on the blog). As for how we discipline Clara, lately we’ve just been using our words and asking her to use hers. She can pretty much express everything she wants (ex: all done, food, milk, water, snack, diaper, outside, color, etc) so if she’s screaming we just ask her what’s wrong (and remind her to use her words) and she usually calms down and says “snack” or whatever she’s looking for so we can solve the problem.

      If she’s throwing food or touching things she shouldn’t be touching we just say “no _______” (ex: “no touching” or “no throwing”) and explain a bit more when we can (ex: “no throwing food, if you’re all done just say ‘all done’ or ask for something else please”) and she’s usually pretty good about it.

      If she’s doing something dangerous, we’re a bit more firm and will obviously step in and pull her away from something as we say it (ex: “No Clara – STOP – that is hot. Do you know what happens when you touch something hot? You get a boo boo. No touching ok?”). And if she listens, we praise the heck out of her (ex: “Great job! Good listening! You’re not touching that because it’s hot!”). She usually repeats the praise and grins (ex: “Good listen Clara. No touch!”) and we clap and celebrate. It’s definitely not flawless, but we do our best. Haha.

      xo,
      s

  22. OKIFOLKI says

    WOW!! It looks LOVELY!

    I have never decorated the outside of our house yet and we’re still working on renovating the inside.

    One day…. hopefully next year, we’ll be ready to follow in your footsteps. I wonder if the secret neighbourhood elf spirits come around here too? That is SUCH a lovely thing of them to do. :)

    Reply

  25. Sarah says

    HOLY SMOKES! I love the RED! Your front porch looks AMAZING! I love everything about it!

    That was cute of your neighbor! I wonder if they tell their friends and familes that they have the king and queen of blogging living in their neighborhood! Haha :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha- we made the neighborhood newsletter. It was very sweet indeed. Don’t know who the elves are though, can’t wait to do some sleuthing to figure it out!

      xo,
      s

  26. Suzie says

    Love your outside decorating! We have decorated the outside of our house every since we moved in 5 years ago, it was something my husband wanted to do. We have to take pictures every year & post them on Facebook so our interstate & overseas friends (we live in Australia) can see what our display looks like each year. I love the tradition!

    Reply

  27. elaine K says

    Love it. I have a Moravian star, but never thought about having 3. It reflects my Moravian roots as I’m a direct descendant of a Moravian organ builder, David Tannenberg, who built organs in Winston Salem, Bethlehem and other Moravian communities.

    Reply

  28. Stephanie says

    Love that you have the red and white Target lights! You were lucky to find them on sale last year. No such luck here…I cleaned out many metro Atlanta Targets to get what we needed for this year! Merry Christmas!

    Reply

  33. Angela B says

    This year is the first year I’ve put up Christmas lights outside too! We have no power outlet outside, but this year a lot of stores having been selling solar-powered lights, so I grabbed a couple of strings. Being in Australia there is plenty of sunlight to charge them up during the day!

    Reply

  34. Elise says

    Look so beautiful, im not surprised the elves sent you a note. That is a moon to howl by though, so spooky and more suitable to your halloween shots than your Christmas shots!

    Reply

  35. Deb says

    I love how you managed to capture what is called the BLUE HOUR (sky) in one of your exterior photos ,its so magical to capture it.The stars are indeed a home run !I really thought I was the only one in this world that did not rush my kitchen but whats so great is that you do have time for changes as you slowly start using it as a funtioning room and changes are a breeze plus you know you got ever bang out of every single dollor that went into it and its all custom !!!My biggest spend were my counters ,all 78 sq.ft.of them ,new granite, which I thought was totally out of the picture until I stumbled on a craigslist ad,cost me under 3,000 which included a new double deep stainless steel sink .You are doing such a great job !!!

    Reply

  37. Kim Davis says

    Your comments about the white lights looking green cracked me up. We just bought a green LED light for the outside of our house and it looks white! Go figure!
    K

    Reply

  38. Lucy Mangan says

    I just love the Ikea lanterns!!! What an absolutely adorable idea with such an amazingly practical way of lighting them up! Thanks for the awesome idea!

    Reply

  39. Christa says

    Love the red reindeer! We just moved into our first house and decided to start a blog about our DIY projects also. Thanks for all of your inspiration! If you have a chance- we’d love some feedback on what we’ve done so far!

    allgrownup2011.blogspot.com

    Reply

  40. foo says

    Hey, you just got me excited for after-Christmas sales. I can’t wait to buy more lights for next year and I am definitely stealing that red reindeer idea. brilliant. Thanks guys. Fun post. Clara rocks.

    Reply

  45. Jenna at Homeslice says

    awesome job- and how nice of your neighbors! I wish more houses would decorate in our area- maybe we should start leaving secret thank you’s for those who do! Things I love- the lanterns, the stars, the lights in the lanterns, your red reindeer, and ms. clara. what a cutie!

    Reply

  48. Reba says

    Love that you guys used Moravian stars!! I’m a Moravian, with all my family being from Winston-Salem. It used to be so rare to see them in Virginia, but it’s becoming such a frequent and welcome sight these days. Mine is proudly displayed for the first time in our new house, adorning our front window. Awesome decoration choice! ;)

    Reply

  50. *camp1899* says

    i just had to tell you that i love, love, love!! your idea of painting the paper reindeer… i am so going to copy you and paint a few of my own.. thanks for sharing! (; *tifany*

    Reply

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