(I DID get in...the threat of david was enough to sort out the problem )!!

(I DID get in...the threat of david was enough to sort out the problem )!!

Door wreath
Landscape lighting changed to red & green bulbs. No solar ones that crap out at midnight, we hardwired them so they are bright and glowing.
Uplighted trees (3) and bows on the lamp posts.

From what I see out there, all the neighbors participate, regardless of religious affiliation. Neighborhood harmony. :)

Since DH died I've tried, I've had someone else try, and they just don't stay lit when it rains, which it usually does.

I need commercial lights for the ground, which every year I say I'll get and I forget about it until it's too late, like now.

Usually a wreath and white twinkling lights on the balcony and/or around the front door is all I will do.

Since I collect flying pigs that might be fun to have a giant Christmas Flying Pig with a spotlight, but it would have to be huge since I'm a good distance off the road.

When we built I had electrical outlets installed under the eaves just so I could light the house. We never did it.

It's a thought to do it this year, though, maybe not too late to hire someone to come out and do that and take them down.

Thanks, tobr, I'll try to get around to that today !

In Florida, the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are really low key and, for me, the lack of stress is wonderful.

I had enough made to line the driveway and entrance on either side of the driveway and either side of the front door. They did a nice job. The ones for the front of the driveway entrance and for either side of the door they made them 8' tall and the ones going down the driveway are 5' and 4' tall.

Trees and bushes will be white lights. The Nutcracker are colorful enough.

If you have a school like this in your area check them out I have seen some nice displays they have made of other holiday themes and you can use them for years and it is good to support kids trying to earn some holiday money.

A sprig of hemlock and a sign lettered in garish glitter
"Surrender all Hope Ye who enter Here!"

*

This person whose values and thoughts you detest thinks that is hilarious.

Please tell me you don't begin a display NOW, or worse, risk bad luck by leaving it up past Twelfth Night!

Joe love the signs :)

I have large REAL balsam wreaths on every door with bows and fruit and nuts wired on them. I have an antique sled propped on the door and white hanging icicle lights on the small old porch. Year round I have electric brass candles at every window. The old house looks like a Currier and Ives painting especially if it snows.

Our son sends a door wreath to us every year. Last year it was the Christmas Cheer from Delong Farms. They make lovely, long-lasting wreaths. We keep the shipping box in our basement and the aroma prolongs for months.

I curse the day they mad these ugly plastic blow up lawn ornaments. I guess they serve a purpose the kids love them and that is the important thing.

I have to say I do not care for "inflatable" Christmas dec's ... simple lights and wreaths look so much nicer IMO.

Oh, and the 20-year old tree is up too.

-Ron-

We have 34th Street in Baltimore to fulfill all our lighting desires.

My DH and I make a huge wreath from evergreen boughs and hang it on the peak of the garage. The garage is roadside, the house is set back and not visible from the road.

I make a fresh display of birch, cedar, and balsam boughs, hang a few bulbs on it and place at the end of the driveway. That and a simple wreath on the door is all we do.

I love to come home to the lights.

I do love decorations and love that the days are shorter so I can see them more easily in the dark, but I don't really contribute. Wish I could!

For several years, we grew a selection of broom corn - aka sorghum, and made some admittedly good looking 'sheaves of grain' maybe 5 feet long, foot in diameter, 80-odd heads of different colored seeds. We hung these by the front door, that old "ready for winter" look.

Last year, the flocks of tiny birds that over-winter discovered this grain stash, and the porch was covered in bird poop and grain shells as they picked the thing clean.

The farmers market always has bottom branches cut from the trees they sell - so I make swags with a red velvet bow for the garage door lamps. That's it.

The good Benedictines across the avenue light up every conifer in their yard, going all the way down the back slope to the creek. Their wrought iron fence has roping and wreathes. The rest of the avenue is pretty restrained.

On my walk at dusk today, I needed my sunglasses as I passed a house with not a square inch undecorated with flashing lights. I'd have a head ache if I lived near him.

(Forgive me. I can't be held responsible for the images that pop into my brain.)

Hay

We keep it simple outside, a very small string of white icicle lights over the tiny porch area, a decorated wreath at our front door.
Inside, I do the tree with the collection of tiny ornaments we have collected since the year we were married, from every out-of-country place we have been stationed as well as from here in the states.
If I could speak to that young couple that was us, I would advise them to collect large ornaments instead and just rotate the use of them during the years - large ornaments fill and decorate a tree very quickly and viola! It's done!

It takes forever to decorate our tree - only six feet tall - because the decorations are so tiny and we also also put about 150 long thin glass icicles on it - because of the enormous amount of tiny things, I've come to dread the job but when it's done, it really is gorgeous, like a sparklie fairy tree, and I'm glad I did the work. It's a fun tree to look at because the longer you look, the more there is to see.
However, at this point in my life, I could easily hand the ornaments down to my son and make do with a very tiny, pretty table-top tree, but keeping our other Christmas favorites we put out (everything on the mantle is a favorite) but everytime I mention it, DH gets a stricken look on his sentimental face so the tree will be done up for as long as it's important to him.

No giant inflatables in our neighborhood but a few miles away, oh my! Kinda scary! I'll bet the kids just adore that stuff, makes it all so much fun for them.
I do love it all and we like to take a long evening drive around a week before Christmas - go out for a light evening meal and pack a thermos of hot cocoa and then spend a few hours driving all over the valley looking at everything people like to do - so lovely and/or so festive! but I can't stand it when people leave all that stuff up a day into February.

I take mine down way early because I have it all up and finished by Dec.1st, so I take it down the day of New Year's eve.
I understand that many more want to leave their decor up much longer because they don't put it up until close to Christmas day, but when Feb.1st rolls around, I begin to make grumpy remarks underneath my breath about those who still have their house lights up - and some always do, sometimes until spring is well approaching.

That is either taking a good thing way too far it's very lazy. Either way, blech! ;)

I use clear and blue lights. I put the most impressive ones on ornamotion so they turn it looks like a jewelry store. It is funny but I like it.

Au Naturel:

And, Putting on the Rits:

The dried and the dried-and-dyed Hydrangeas will last just about forever. The dyed ones might bleed in the outside rain so I'd keep them inside. The dried ones will fade to a coffee-with-cream color over time, but will still look nice and last forever.

Better than Roses.

Hay

I will look through my files for a full pic but this will is an idea of why it does not photograph well because of the crystals..

"You said it Hay, better than roses. Great looking! I could also see that as a Valentine's wreath, and I don't even hang a Valentine's wreath. Thank you, I enjoy this!"

My reward for teaching the woman the technique.

Hay

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Anyone see "Christmas Vacation"? That wasn't the Clark Griswold house; that was my house ;D