Holiday Home Made
Beginning the outdoor decorating before the snow falls is a wonderful thing.
It's much easier to untangle those twinkle lights when you don't have mittens on!
Here are some links to get you started with your outdoor decorating.
It's much easier to untangle those twinkle lights when you don't have mittens on!
Here are some links to get you started with your outdoor decorating.
Here you can find all kinds of ideas for homemade gifts, crafts and decorations for Christmas.
Our goal is to create a collection of useful links so you can create your own Homemade Holiday.
Our goal is to create a collection of useful links so you can create your own Homemade Holiday.
Welcome to Holiday Home Made! We're glad you stopped by.
Wood Cut Out Patterns from the
1940s, 50, and 60s.
1940s, 50, and 60s.
How To transform your landscape into an Icy Wonderland
Outdoor Christmas Decorating
San Diego, CA was the first recorded city to use electric Christmas Lights outside in 1904. New York City used them in 1912, but it was decades before the electric Christmas lights found their way to common use. The city of McAdenville North Carolina is credited with inventing the tradition of decorating evergreen trees with Christmas lights according to the Library of Congress. In 1956 the McAdenville Men’s Club conceived the idea of decorating a few trees around the town’s community center. In all fairness I feel we must remember the grandest outdoor decoration the Tree at Rockefeller Center has been illuminated since 1931 but didn’t have electric lights until 1956. That was the same year Philadelphia and Disney began using outdoor electric lights.
It took some time but electric Christmas lights found their way to rafters, roof lines, and porches of homes across America. Along with them came all types of other outdoor Christmas décor. From homemade plywood cut outs to plastic Santas and Soldiers soon our yards became show places of our love for Christmas and our wish to bring the neighborhoods and the communities some good cheer!
It took some time but electric Christmas lights found their way to rafters, roof lines, and porches of homes across America. Along with them came all types of other outdoor Christmas décor. From homemade plywood cut outs to plastic Santas and Soldiers soon our yards became show places of our love for Christmas and our wish to bring the neighborhoods and the communities some good cheer!
First for a little history lesson about Outdoor Christmas Decorations
Lighting Outdoor Christmas Trees
Nothing is more beautiful than seeing well lit trees lining a street. Or a home with its landscaping all aglow. It brings warmth and much needed light into our cold dark winter nights. Now the time and money involved can be daunting so here are some easy tips to make a big statement without falling off a ladder or committing your whole weekend in the cold.
Mix it up use some bigger bulbed strings (C7s or even C9s) along with your “twinkle” lights. It will be a much faster and efficient way to get lots of light and interest without having to string each branch.
Use floods! This is a very inexpensive and simple way to add some holiday to your landscape and best of all it goes up (and may I add down) in minutes. Buy some flood light stakes, add some colored floods and voile it’s done! This is also beautiful on any type of shrub or tree. (My parents lit a saguaro cactus this way, it was gorgeous.) It doesn’t cause any damage to their brittle winter branches either.
Use floods! This is a very inexpensive and simple way to add some holiday to your landscape and best of all it goes up (and may I add down) in minutes. Buy some flood light stakes, add some colored floods and voile it’s done! This is also beautiful on any type of shrub or tree. (My parents lit a saguaro cactus this way, it was gorgeous.) It doesn’t cause any damage to their brittle winter branches either.
Outdoor Christmas Decorating Tips
You don’t necessarily have to light a tree to make it Christmas.
Tie some large bows on the branches. Check with your local dollar store, they will usually have some plastic table cloths that you can cut into strips and make wonderful weather proof bows out of for pennies of what ribbon would cost.
Hang some pine cones spread with peanut butter and rolled in bird seed. This is a great activity to do with children. Tie them to the trees with raffia (the pine cones not the children) and you have a beautiful statement that will attract “live ornaments”
Tie some large bows on the branches. Check with your local dollar store, they will usually have some plastic table cloths that you can cut into strips and make wonderful weather proof bows out of for pennies of what ribbon would cost.
Hang some pine cones spread with peanut butter and rolled in bird seed. This is a great activity to do with children. Tie them to the trees with raffia (the pine cones not the children) and you have a beautiful statement that will attract “live ornaments”
