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?

Putting lights on to lessen the risk of being burgled is entirely justified, even though you are lighting up rooms with nobody in them.

Lighting up the entire outside of your house though, AND your garden, and the roof? Pointless.

Anything joyful is always shot down on Mumsnet.

We have icicle lights all across our gutters. And 2 light up reindeers and an outside tree made of lights.

All warm white lights and they're on a timer, so I love leaving the house and coming home in the dark.

A few years later and most of the houses on our street now join suit 😂

@MLMshouldbeillegal It's not pointless if it brings the person happiness and looks good.

Ours from last year, we normally put them up the first week in December. We are hopefully moving in January so will no doubt be adding more next year!

@MLMshouldbeillegal

Putting lights on to lessen the risk of being burgled is entirely justified, even though you are lighting up rooms with nobody in them.

Lighting up the entire outside of your house though, AND your garden, and the roof? Pointless.

Some people by us do incredible displays in memory of their daughter who died and raise insane amounts of money for charity.

We do decorate and when covid hit, we went overboard because it was fucken miserable.

The kids love it 😂

But we only have lights and the odd decoration, not much at all.

But I do like doing window displays - they can be done relatively easily with paper.

Wreath on the door and twinkly lights on the tree out the front and around our garden seating area. The lights have stayed all year

@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?

Only lights on the guttering. Nearly everyone on the street does at least this. once the hooks are up ( they stay there all year) it doesn't take 15 mins to get them up each year.

That's great, BritWife. But in the UK most of us don't have solar panels and anyway it's not about the money, is it?

It's not pointless though. Most people are putting on led fairy lights for a handful of hours for a handful of weeks and represents fuck all against the usual energy consumption of most homes and it brings pleasure in the darkest days of the year. If that makes you clench then don't turn on the kettle.

We only moved into our house the week before Christmas 2020 so didn't have a change to decorate inside properly, outside never stood a chance. This year I'm hoping to get it done properly, although need to find some new lights first, ideally battery ones as we're limited on sockets

Oh, we always have a door wreath too. And a want a stop here sign when the kids were younger.

Yes. Nothing flashing or strobing, and no signs or inflated Santas, just lots of lights - we have big trees out front that look lovely with lights in. The neighbours do likewise- it’s a road with plenty of passing traffic so it’s nice to do and my kids really like it. They’re LED, on a timer and last for years, I am comfortable with my environmental choices. When not in use the lights live in an empty suitcase in the loft.

Our lights live up the loft until I send dh up there to get the decorations down

Inside lights attached to windows and some white window decals. And a wreath.

A wreath and fairy lights, I love coming home and seeing the lights outside

Nope it’ll get trashed or stolen by one of our scabby neighbours.

@GreenFingersWouldBeHandy

Christ no. Tacky, expensive and environmentally unfriendly.

Agreed, although I have to admit that I do get some pleasure from seeing them as I drive past!

Hell no it's tacky!

@MagentaRocks

I don’t even decorate inside let alone outside.

That didn't take long, did it?

We have a string of festoon lights which we hang around the porch and usually a wreath on the door. I also place candelabras in the windows and this year I have also got some reusable paper stars to hang above them, which are visible from the street.

I have to say I enjoy seeing lights start popping up from 1 December. It feels like quite a primal urge to want to share light at the darkest time of the year.

We put fairy lights on the balcony. They're solar powered so reasonably environmentally friendly and turn off when the power runs out, so depending on how sunny the day has been, that's usually before midnight. I don't get why people leave them on 24/7.

No just a wreath on the door

I light my bush

We put lights in our small tree in the front garden - it looks so pretty . I love seeing seeing houses with lights in the window or in the trees etc.
Quite a few houses in our area do the same