Decorating your outdoors is as much a ritual of Christmas preparations as anything. Parent and child can spend a day stringing lights, neighbors can enjoy friendly competition for creating the most impressive spread. It’s all about spreading the season’s greetings and creating a warm neighborhood feeling.

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How you create your exterior design for Christmas says a lot about you. Nobody likes driving past that one house that just threw some lights in a tree! Here we are with 24 tips for inspiring and creating great outdoor decorations for the holidays:

Light It Up!

1. Colored flood lights can make a sleek and easy change to stunning holiday lighting.

2. For complex Christmas lighting projects, sketch things out ahead of time and don’t wait until the last minute.

3. Explore inspiring photos to choose a darling lighting theme.

4. Instead of stringing all your lights in one day, do part of the lighting and check it out after dark before proceeding with the hardest parts.

5. Use different sizes of light bulbs in different areas to create a “textural” sort of effect.

6. String lights around windows if you want height but do not wish to risk getting on the roof.

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Christmas Decorations for the Front Yard

7. Make use of California’s climate by highlighting your natural greenery and contrasting it with decorations of other colors.

8. Spruce up your front yard’s trees with large christmas ornaments for a fun use of local greenery.

9. Use cactus and pepper plants as red-and-green decoration that suits our weather.

10. Decorate with the Christmas cactus for a delicate succulent with bright pink flowers.

11. Want a subtle scene? Stick to a monochrome theme to easily coordinate a sophisticated exterior design.

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Front Door Decorating Ideas

12. Add Christmas lights to other door decorations to temporarily transform them into seasonal exterior design features.

13. You can also simply spray paint wreaths and other decorative objects to turn them into Christmas affairs.

14. Have an unusual colored door? Showcase it for the season by bordering it with matching strings of holiday lights.

15. Check out exciting examples of well-done front door displays to gather inspiration.

16. Place a small Christmas tree next to the front door for classic and easy decorating.

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Backyard Christmas Decorating

17. Don’t forget your outdoor spaces! In our climate, take advantage of the ability to enjoy the winter season outside with backyard decorations.

18. Switch to Christmas-themed options for patio and lantern lights for a swift backyard makeover.

19. Bring poolside and yuletide together: use Christmas lights to throw a crisp cocktail party.

20. If your family is adventurous, arrange your tree on the patio and have your full Christmas celebration outside.

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Unique Exterior Design for Christmas

21. Think outside the box! You can find Star Wars-themed Christmas lawn figurines and just about anything else you can imagine.

22. Add holiday trim to birdbaths and other outdoor fixtures to liven up the property.

23. Dress up a casita, bungalow, guest house or other outdoor property like a gingerbread house or winter wonderland for an inspired project.

24. Save money and have fun with homemade decorations to customize your exterior design.

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Great holiday decorations need an excellent backdrop of outstanding exterior design and quality landscaping. The rest is up to your imagination. Let us know if we can help you get prepared with home and lawn redesign and services!