Do you decorate the outside of your house?!

[userno53627]

Exactly that really. Do you decorate the outside of your house for Christmas?

When I was growing, it felt like hardly anyone did. Maybe one or two and they would be famous for it and you'd drive around to have a look. It seems to have become increasingly popular which is great - dc love the lights.

Last year most houses on our street decorated outside and a fair few in the village. Some have gone all out and others more subtle.

I felt a right Scrooge because we've never really bothered with the outside - only indoors.

Am I really a Scrooge?

I just don't have the patience to sort it out - or the money!

Where do people store outside lights all winter in small houses with bit garage?

@SnarkyBag

To be honest people who put up flashing lights should be shot! They’re such an assault on the eyes and brain!

Living up to your name there🤣

Bah humbug

We string lights on the insides of windows - just strings of fairy lights - and that always looks cheery from the outside.

We also have some outdoor lights we sometimes use - plain for the front of the house and coloured we string through the holly tree in the back garden.

Coming home after dark to a lit house always makes me smile.

Don't normally but Last year our street had a turning on of the lights and Santa visit. It was really lovely so doing again. I just had a home made wreath with lights and lights on the tree

We decorate the outside of ours several times a year. I’m the winter it stays decorated from October (Halloween), then modified in November for thanksgiving, then switched to Christmas.

I like small white lights in neat rows and decorations of just two of three colors for Christmas. And lots of snow. Something like this. That’s not tacky at all. Multi-color flashing lights and projectors? Yep, tacky.

@SnarkyBag

To be honest people who put up flashing lights should be shot! They’re such an assault on the eyes and brain!

Especially the blue and red ones! Should be illegal.

we moved earlier this year. Judging by the standard of Halloween, I am going to assume Advent will be very bright.

We decorate a window with crepe paper and lights. Everything else can just be seen inside.

I think it is lovely to see houses decorated for advent and christmas. Just not in october

We used to put icicle lights along the front of the house but only because DD had SN and her school bus used to drop off outside the house - so it was for her bus mates really.

I must be tacky then as I love houses decorated. It always feels really Christmassy. Then again I'm the type of person who has the tree up by November the 20th and Mariah Carey on repeat.

Sorry, @BritWifeInUSA, that pic you posted is, to my eyes, exceptionally tacky. Way OTT.

Also, at a time when we're all being told to cut our energy consumption to save the planet, how can you justify spending ££££ on lights?

@bigbluebus

We used to put icicle lights along the front of the house but only because DD had SN and her school bus used to drop off outside the house - so it was for her bus mates really.

Aww lovely. My two have sen too and they love looking at peoples lights - just never did it ourselves! Inside is done nicely though!

I have tasteful window clings but that’s it. I like to enjoy my decorations and I can’t see them if they’re outside! Also I don’t want to annoy my neighbours.

Halloween, I project holograms though. That’s just for one night so it’s manageable.

Yes, I have outdoor Christmas led lights that have a mix of cool and warm whites and they are gorgeous. They wrap up to something the size of a football and they live in the loft. Do what you like, op. There no obligation to do anything you don't want to do.

Round here anything outside gets stolen, I've had a window box with plants taken before... I do have a wreath on the door and subtle star shaped lights around my front bay window on the inside.

Wreath on the door.

A house near us goes the whole hog. It's like living next door to Blackpool Illuminations. Bloody horrible...and crap for the planet. And they ask for donations towards their electricity bill too!

I did last year for the first time because it was a winter lockdown and I just wanted to make it more bearable. Now I've got the decorations I'll use them again.

They're just white fairy lights, so I don't think they're too offensive.

We put a wreath on the door and some lights around window frames and icicle lights around the garage. Cheers me up.

I’ve bought some star lights to hang in the kitchen windows this year. Kitchen is at the front of the house.

@SnarkyBag

To be honest people who put up flashing lights should be shot! They’re such an assault on the eyes and brain!

I remember watching a story on local tv when we lived in the East Midlands about a woman who was basically confined to her house for December because she had a form of photosensitive epilepsy that was particularly sensitive to the flash frequency or intensity of many Christmas lights, and she’d broken bones and given herself bad injuries going into violent seizures.

@MLMshouldbeillegal

Sorry, *@BritWifeInUSA*, that pic you posted is, to my eyes, exceptionally tacky. Way OTT.

Also, at a time when we're all being told to cut our energy consumption to save the planet, how can you justify spending ££££ on lights?

Based on previous posts, suspect they are pretty r-w and don't believe there is any climate crisis...

I have a bare silver birch type tree and a couple of reindeer that go on the front lawn (made of plastic 'wicker' wound round a metal frame. They look quite nice during the day and have small white lights for when it gets dark.

In addition, the two front windows downstairs have candle bridge type lights in them that can be seen from outside.

I make a wreath for the front door too.

This is ours (in December). Makes the place look cheery on dark nights

@BritWifeInUSA I love that it's beautiful.

There was a thread not long ago about setting a timer to switch lights on after dark to make the house look occupied when empty. There was a lot of tut tutting about climate change and wasted power etc.
I am assuming the same people would be equally as frothy about a few outside Christmas lights.

@dementedpixie

This is ours (in December). Makes the place look cheery on dark nights

Looks amazing 💕 I just can't see how it would ever look that good here. I think the style of our house and the lack of large windows at the front of the house makes it harder to imagine what it would look like!

Probably, posters never let a small pleasure go unpunished on here.

@MLMshouldbeillegal

Sorry, *@BritWifeInUSA*, that pic you posted is, to my eyes, exceptionally tacky. Way OTT.

Also, at a time when we're all being told to cut our energy consumption to save the planet, how can you justify spending ££££ on lights?

Relax it’s not my house.

How do I justify what I spend on lights? Well, I don’t need to justify anything that I spend (and neither do you) but we can easily afford it. Most houses in our part of the world have solar power. FIL’s house produced so much energy from his solar panels that he would sell it back to the electricity company.

I do a lot of things that counteract my few strings of Christmas lights when it comes to the environment.