Some links may be affiliate links. We get money if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these links on our site.
Christmas All The Time is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
More And More Outdoor Decor
People love to share their love of the holidays with everyone by decorating their yard and house. Some of us stay low key by hanging a wreath on the front door and maybe some candy canes staked in the yard. Others really like to live out loud. This month, we’re going to look at some ways that you can turn your home into a super-festive winter wonderland.
Lights
| The original outdoor Christmas lighting was a candle placed in the window to guide the Holy Family on their way to Bethlehem.
In Ireland, they’d even set a meal for Mary and Joseph before heading out to Christmas Eve Mass. |
|
|
|
Outdoor Christmas lighting kicked off at a municipal level in Denver Colorado as early as 1907.
The simple act of adding red and green bulbs to street lamps helped to make the season that much more festive. |
| As technology advanced, electricity became a safe alternative to the old way of lighting the family Christmas tree.
The old way had led to a devastating fire in New York City in 1917. |
|
|
|
The old way was to attach lit candles to the branches of your Christmas tree.
Of course, this got me wondering why all of Western Civilization hadn’t burned to the ground somewhere between the late 17th and early 20th Centuries. |
| Apparently, they usually put the tree up on Christmas Eve and only had the candles lit while they were home to keep an eye on them. Whew! |
|
|
|
The first electric Christmas lights were a promotional gimmick by The Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Edison. It would take a while for them to become commercially viable. |
| After World War II, advances in plastic manufacturing made outdoor lights practical for household use.
The festive spirit of the holidays was about to take a ride to the future for an increasingly affluent middle class. |
|
|
|
Of course, all of this yuletide illumination would lead to pretty expensive electric bills.
The scientists would need to go back to the drawing board and help bring this Christmas joy back under budget. |
| Well that’s easier said than done, so they decided to wow us with gimmicks instead. If you can’t make Christmas lights less expensive to run, you can make them twinkle. Ooooh! |
|
|
|
Having been temporarily distracted by the twinkly lights, they needed to come up with a novelty that also introduced a safety feature.
Incandescent lights get hot. Hot lights on a dried out natural Christmas tree was nearly as bad as putting lit candles on the branches. The bubble lights would actually distribute the heat from the bulb over the surface of the water filled bulbs. This reduced the heat overall and made for an interesting display. |
| Although the science leading to LEDs was conceived of as early as 1907, it didn’t come to fruition until Nick Holonyak, Jr. created a visible light LED for General Electric in 1962. |
|
|
|
Once LED light sets became commercially available, we had entered a new era of holiday jolliness.
LEDs operate cooler, far longer and significantly less expensively than previous versions of Christmas lights. |
| Adding some serious 21st Century magic to the LED lights, the ability to program your lights to dance in time with a musical performance has taken the humble Christmas light to new heights. |
|
|
|
|
Camera
| Another nifty new way to do dancing lights is with a projector system. Rather than stringing zillions of LEDs to your roof and walls, you can set up a projector in your yard (hopefully, nobody steals it) and paint your front wall with an animated holiday display. |
|
|
|
This simple but visually stunning option is the genius grandchild of a 1950s classic.
Back in the day, the natural alternative to a string of lights was to have a shiny tinsel tree and point a spotlight at it with a slowly rotating disc attached to it. |
| You might think that my grandfather’s futuristic 50s Christmas tree was a kitschy flash in the pan, and you’d be right. It’s a tradition that didn’t really endure.
However, it apparently inspired an early computerized game in 1978. Simon used the exact same color layout and, like its predecessor, only lasted a while. |
|
|
|
Around 2015, the laser projector became available for home use. A standalone unit will typically have a variety of designs included so that you can use it for both Halloween and Christmas decorating. |
| Some people take the built-in features of a laser system and add an animated slide projector show to the process.
If you’re going to bathe your house in dancing lights, you can always add a sound system to put the visuals in context. |
|
|
|
If you really want to dial up your game, there are so many items on the market and tutorials on how to integrate them into a genuinely spectacular holiday show for neighbors and passersby. |
|
|
|
Action
Since we’re lighting everything up and getting it to dance along with the music, you might as well add some actual motion to the display.
Lights are great but they don’t show up as well in the daytime as they do on long winter nights. If you’re going full future festive, it’s time to put some decorations up that show off your holiday spirit while the sun is still shining.
Inflatables
| One of the most noteworthy harbingers of the holiday season is the Macy’s parade and one of the most iconic parts of that parade is the balloons.
Everybody loves the enormous balloons of their favorite cartoon characters floating down Central Park West on Thanksgiving Day right before Santa Claus comes to town. |
|
|
|
Since most of us can’t get to New York City to see those famous character balloons, the next best thing is to have them in your own front yard.
There are so many to choose from these days. Whether you prefer famous cartoon characters, something as simple as a wrapped gift or as complex as a snow globe with fluttering snow and dancing characters inside, there are inflatables to please just about everyone. |
| It seems like it would be pretty easy just to follow the instructions on the box, but yard inflatables are serious business for the dedicated outdoor decorator.
Be sure to search the web for tips and tricks from some of the holiday’s most avid yard decorators. |
|
Animatronics
|
|
In days of old, department stores used to entertain children with front window displays of puppet shows and wind up figures.
So, it was only natural for people to want recapture that magic at home. |
| There are a variety of pre-configured animatronics that you can get from big box stores as well as specialty dealers like Christmas Animatronic Magic who can help you set up a truly unique interactive holiday display. |
|
|
|
From talking snowmen to life-sized singing Santas, you can bring all the holiday magic indoors and out.
It’s not just for department stores, malls and town squares anymore. We can make magical memories right at home. |
Trains
| If you’re talking about motion, there’s nothing more classically Christmas than a train set. We used to have one that circled around the base of our tree.
Having worked in a hobby store, I knew that there were such thing as outdoor train sets. I haven’t run a train in ages, but there are plenty of people who do. |
|
|
|
The G in G-Scale trains literally stand for “Garden”. These enormous trains are designed to be set up and run outdoors.
With a little ingenuity and a lot of holiday spirit, you can make a spectacular yard display. There are plenty of DIY videos on how to design your outdoor train set for maximum holiday joy. |
| If you’ve got kids to entertain or if you’ve simply never grown up, there are even model trains in which you can ride around your yard.
This is definitely the height of dedication, but if you have the skill and resources you’ll definitely bring a lot of Christmas joy with a rideable yard train. |
|
Gone are the days of simply putting a candle in the window and a wreath on the door. Yuletide magic is only limited by your imagination and determination. If you have the will, there are definitely a lot of ways to decorate outdoors.