Outdoor Christmas decoration inspiration

When it comes to decorating outdoors for Christmas, lights are a must-have. With less daylight, lights are a great way to draw attention and add cheer and warmth to the contrasting weather.

First, add outdoor-friendly lights to the edges of windows, the edges of the roof, and around support columns and posts. If you have fences too, this is also a great place to add them.

This illuminates your home, and adds some warmth, creating a lovely festive atmosphere. You can choose depending on your preference the colour of these lights. Whether classic white or a variety of vivid colours.

Once you’ve illuminated your home, you can add some more lights to different parts of the garden. Perhaps add some lights to the trees or shrubs you have.

You can buy nets of lights to speed this process up. You can also choose standing lights in all sorts of Christmas-themed silhouettes and shapes.

Reindeers are particularly popular, but you could also consider snowmen, penguins, or even a tree made completely of string lights.

When lighting your garden or the front of your home, be considerate of the local wildlife. Make sure you turn the lights off before you go to bed, as these lights can be confusing for nocturnal creatures like bats. If possible, aim for warmer tones lights rather than bright whites, as these are better for nighttime wildlife also. This doesn’t mean all your lights need to be red, but oranges, yellows, and warm whites are suitable. Plus, many nocturnal flighted creatures like bats hibernate during the winter, so are unlikely to be affected by your lights.

Christmas decorations like wreaths and garlands are a staple of festive design. A wreath on the front door welcomes you and Christmas visitors inside, inviting the spirit of the festive season. Watch my videos below where I demonstrate how to make a wreath, and how to make a garland using festive foliage. You can read my blog here about some of the best plants to grow for festive foliage.

Add some other features besides foliage to create texture in your garland or wreath. Pinecones are popular natural materials you can forage yourself. Or add some outdoor-friendly battery lights. Plus, if your wreath is in an enclosed area, like a porch, you don’t need to worry about it being weather-proof. I also like to add some interesting sticks and twigs. A favourite I tend to lean towards is hazel. It has an interesting corkscrew structure for a fantastic natural impact.

Garlands are quite versatile in where you can put them. Thanks to their malleable shape, they can be draped or tied around different structures as decoration. Much like lights, tie them around pillars or fence posts if you have them, or drape them over your doorway for an extra impact.

It’s great fun to have an outdoor Christmas tree as well as an indoor one to decorate. Consider a pot-grown Christmas tree outside your front door or a sheltered patio. And there are a lot of different ways you could decorate it.

A fun different idea is to add some wildlife-friendly snacks as decorations. Make some festive-shaped fat balls like stars, cover them in seeds and nuts, and hang them from your tree. This will provide an invaluable source of food for birds in the winter, helping them to gain energy for the colder months.

For a more classic look, choose some outdoor-friendly decorations. Decorations made from metal are ideal, as even if they rust the colours on offer are still striking. Natural, homemade decorations also work a treat. You can varnish them too if you want to ensure they last against inclement weather.