This holiday season brought a lot of firsts for our little family. It’s the first year Clara can shout cheerful things like “I love you, Santa!” at the giant inflatables in the hardware store parking lot (and yes, she does this a lot). It’s also the first time we purchased a real tree, even if it’s the tabletop variety, and the first time we’ve properly celebrated Christmas in this house — last December we were still living out of boxes. But the biggest new thing this year is that we finally decorated the outside of our home. We had never done that before. Why did we wait so long? There’s a little magic in waiting for dusk, plugging everything in, and taking that step back to watch the lights glow. We should have started years ago.
Because this was our introduction to exterior decorating, we kept it simple rather than lighting every inch of the house. We had fun making a first pass, which included:
- placing white candle lights in every window
- hanging three glowing star ornaments from the porch at varied heights
- turning an evergreen beside the driveway into a small outdoor Christmas tree with red and white lights
- draping candy-cane-style red and white lights over the bushes leading to the front door
- filling three oversized red metal lanterns on the porch with white string lights
- adding two glossy red reindeer in a window
Up close on the porch you can see the shiny red reindeer flanking a candle in the window, with the lit tabletop tree glowing behind them and the hanging stars reflecting in the glass. Hanging the stars at different heights in front of the picture window creates a nice optical trick: their reflections double the display, so from some viewpoints it appears there are six glowing stars floating above the porch instead of three.
One oddity in our photos: the white lights look slightly green because they’re reflecting the greenery of the bushes. In person they’re bright white, so imagine crisp white paired with shiny red. That combination feels retro and bold against our modest ranch-style home, especially in a neighborhood where many homes choose an all-white aesthetic.
From the curb you can see our little evergreen that finally got its moment in the spotlight, lit with red and white lights to match the rest of the display. Adding lights to the bushes leading to the front door helped balance the whole look and guided the eye toward the porch.
The three oversized red lanterns on the porch were a great find and added instant warmth. We considered pillar candles inside them, but decided to stuff each lantern with a string of white lights for a stronger glowing effect. We ran a single extension cord to power a chained set of three light strings so the lanterns glow together as one coordinated feature.
A sweet surprise came from the neighborhood: someone left a little thank-you note in our mailbox for decorating. It was such a pleasant, unexpected bit of appreciation and made the whole effort feel even more worthwhile.
The hanging stars are assembled from plastic pieces that snap together to form a Moravian-style star. They’re lightweight and weather-friendly, and using plant hooks on the inner porch header made them easy to hang and position at different heights.
We used candy-cane-style red and white mini lights throughout, which have a cheerful, nostalgic vibe. They helped tie the porch, the bushes, and the little evergreen into a unified palette that reads as festive and inviting after dark.
About the square wreath: I made it from four straight sticks collected from the yard, snapped to length so they matched. I wired the corners together with floral wire to form a rustic square frame, then wrapped a faux boxwood garland around the frame to give it solidity and texture. A red “kissing ball” I’d had from a past gift fit in the center and rested on the door knocker so no extra hooks were needed. The wreath is simple and a little sparse — very Charlie Brown — so I affectionately named it “Charlie.”
As for the red reindeer, I found them while picking up the boxwood garland. They were inexpensive and large, and after a coat of glossy red spray paint they transformed from plain paper-mache tones into bright, ceramic-like figures. Clara loves them and now shouts “Santa’s coming!” whenever she sees them in the window. That kind of excitement is contagious and made the whole project worth it.
Decorating the outside of our house was a fun, approachable way to stretch our holiday traditions. It’s amazing how a few coordinated accents — window candles, hanging stars, a string of candy-cane lights, a handmade wreath and a couple of playful reindeer — can create a warm, festive curbside display. Have you tried a square wreath or painted a seasonal figure? If you’re new to outdoor decorating, start small: a few thoughtful touches can make a big impact when the lights come on at dusk.