Outdoor Holiday Decorating Tips
Add some of these easy DIY Christmas decorating ideas to your holiday repertoire!
One easy yet elegant project is to fill your outdoor containers with arrangements of cut greens stuck directly in the soil. (Of course, you'll pull out any finished-up summer plants first...) You can cut from your own garden - a little snip here or there won't hurt - or purchase pre-cut. Classics include holly, cut evergreen branches, and dramatic southern magnolia, but the seed heads from ornamental grasses, nandina berries, or even branches of shrubs or trees covered with strings of lights can be incorporated. For extra impact, create matching arrangements in hanging baskets from the past season. White pine's flexible branches work especially well here.
Ornaments can decorate more than the Christmas tree! Hang large ornaments on your empty hanging basket hooks. Top with a large bow for quick and easy holiday cheer. Try filling emptied pots or the birdbath with an assortment of ornaments in coordinating colors, tuck a few sprigs of holly or cut greens in between.
Tie the legs of a tomato cage together, turn point up, and wrap with outdoor lights to create a lit Christmas tree topiary that can be set on the lawn or secured in a large pot. Dress up the base with cut greens, bows or ornaments.
Get the kids involved with holiday decorating by having them make garlands of popcorn, cranberries or dry cereal to decorate outdoor evergreens. Add shiny red apples and birdseed ornaments (spread peanut butter on pine cones, then roll in birdseed) to make your tree into a holiday bird buffet. Plus, the squirrels and birds will thank you for the holiday feast!
If you use a live tree to decorate for Christmas this year, remember that it will fare best if it is not inside for more than 10 days. Longer than that may cause it to break dormancy and begin growing. This increases the chances of damage or death when moved outside after the holiday. Let the tree spend a few days in an unheated garage both on the way inside and back out to minimize temperature shock.