DIY Outdoor Christmas Decorations

Electric candles with clear or white bulbs in each window. Green wreath with a red bow on the front door. Or maybe a tacky blow-up Santa or snowman that will deflate and fall flat on its face in a couple of days.

Decorating outside for Christmas has gotten pretty boring and predictable. Why not do something different…and fun?

Drag out those tomato cages you stacked so neatly and put away back in September. Gather several strings of colored lights and wind them around and around each cage, securing the wires with twist ties, and place three or four of them in the yard. Or make a whole forest of tomato cage trees, the more the better. Hook them all up with an outdoor-safe extension cord and plug ‘em in. Beautiful! More than that, it’s a budget-smart way to create a unique display in the front yard. Get the kids involved, too. They’ll love making their own little trees.

More trees can be created from scrap plywood and a power saw. Draw the silhouette of a tree on the plywood with a magic marker and have Dad cut it out. Your trees can be of varied sizes to create a real forest. Nail small nails with heads around the outside perimeter of the each tree and string electric lights all the way around. Prop your trees up against real tree trunks or prop them up securely against cinder blocks. Easy to keep from year to year.

Got an old bicycle tucked away in the garage? Why not prop it up in the yard, and wrap the wheels with white lights? Attach a basket on the handle bars and fill it with greenery and small children’s toys.

Line your front steps with several of the pretty flower pots you have stacked in the shed. Fill them to overflowing with pine cuttings, cones and shiny red Christmas balls.

The point here is to look around your yard and garage and shed and make use of what you already have. Pieces of scrap wood cut into varying lengths and nailed to an upright post will make a rustic Christmas tree. Paint it green, or don’t, decorate with lights and you have a recycled yard decoration.

How about that galvanized bucket you use in the garden? Clean it up and fill with stems of holly or pine. Place silver and gold Christmas balls among the greenery and you have a thing of beauty for the back steps.

Is your bird bath empty? Fill it with greenery and pine cones and perhaps include some feed for the birds.

I have a friend who chooses not to put up a Christmas tree any more. Too much work, she says. Instead, she hangs a lush pine branch on the wall in her den and decorates it much as you would a tree, lights, ornaments and all. Why not use that idea outside?

Something different can be fun.