Snowmen, Santa and his reindeer, stockings, snowflakes, candy canes, wreaths, inflatable characters, garland, ribbons, colored Christmas lights! Creating a holiday look for your house and yard can be a ton of fun, but without some pre-planning it can become rather cluttered looking and thrown together.
Where To Start?
Take a careful look at your house and yard. Do you want to dress up the yard, trees and bushes? Just the house? It’s a good idea to choose a theme and stick to it. If you like artificial icicles, for example, then you should use other types of lights sparingly or use a single color for other places, like around windows. Finding the balance for your house between too much and too little is key. You should consider the rooftop, lawn and porch as well as the house itself.
LED or Incandescent Lights?
LED lights are dazzling and bright and don’t get hot, but have a higher price tag than standard incandescent lights. If you plan to use lots of lights and make an investment for the long term, LED lights are a good choice when decorating for christmas. You’ll love the look and you’ll also save on electricity. On the other hand, incandescent lights are traditional and can create a tasteful and charming look. If your lighting plan is modest, you might consider blinking or chasing lights. They add a dimension that will enhance even the simplest lighting scheme. Spot lights and flood lights can add a splash of color to an otherwise plain display.
Outdoor Christmas Accessories
Lighted inflatable characters always look great at night. They are large and very colorful. And, when the season is over, they can be stored in less space than say, a wire framed accessory. Strings of lights can be shaped into stars or candy canes over your own wire frame, which can be stored or discarded without too much worry over excess costs.
Subtle Christmas Decorating Touches
Subtlety can change an average looking house into a clever, eye-catching house. A large wreath or red bow on the garage or front door adds a nice final touch. If you plan to combine lights with accessories, keep the lighting simple, like a single color with no blinking lights. That will create a nice backdrop for your display.
General Outdoor Lighting Tips
Develop and overall plan and think it through before you buy. That will give you a clear idea of how many lights you’ll need as well as which type and colors you’ll want. Look around online to get the whole picture and save time driving around. That will give you a larger picture of what’s available as well so you get what you want without having second thoughts later on.
Your display will create a feeling. Address the feeling you want your visitors to have before buying a lot of different things. All too often, people buy without planning first, and then don’t use everything or have too much or too little of what they really want. Christmas lights and decorations put people into a cheerful mood so keep the mood cheerful when planning. Pick one theme and stick with it.
Finally, don’t forget to use a timer for your lights. You can have your lights go off at 11:00 PM or midnight without having to do anything yourself. It’ll save time and spare your energy bill to boot.
If you want to see what’s possible with synchronized lighting displays, click on the video below. Don’t get too excited about running out and copying the idea though, unless you’re ready for a large investment in time and money. The programming for the 45,000 lights at this house takes about 8 hours for every minute of display time.Oh, and the owner of this particular display had to move it to a public mall after the HOA only allowed it to be displayed on “certain” days. The music is broadcast over a low-wattage station inside the house. Just tune in while you drive by and enjoy the show:
Have fun this year, and Merry Christmas from Your Dallas Handyman!