The Florida house allowed for my first venture into outdoor holiday decorating. Clearly a trip to every
home décor store within a 10-mile radius was warranted. Ever the bad influence, my mom goaded me
on with choruses of “you work hard, you deserve some fun.” I spent more than one should ever should
on fabric poinsettias and sparkly knickknacks for a window box, but it was great fun.
I opted for a non-traditional color palette that would match the coop: shades of teal, silver and blue. I
promptly regretted my non-traditional palette when the neighbor came outside and asked, “Is there
some occasion?” I thought the garland and lights would have given it away. Apparently not.
Not to be deterred, I forged ahead with my wrapping and lighting. I hung wreaths on the windows
flanking the house, decked out the window boxes, strung lights around the columns and added lighted
garland to the arch. The end result is below.
For the window boxes, I used white poinsettias as a base and purchased some silver, blue and evergreen tchotchkes. I also added silver pinecones, which were collected by me and my mom and spraypainted by the so-called “Picasso of Spray Paint”, AKA, my father. I flanked the boxes with two oversized plastic ornaments. Finally, I wove teal ribbon throughout the boxes. I also used the ribbon to hang the wreaths above the windows and to top the front door swag.
Finally, we got a little creative with some native FL flora. I’m not entirely sure what one calls these, but they are essentially the stems that hold seeds on a palm tree. They dropped out of a couple of my parent’s trees, and we noticed that they looked like Christmas trees in miniature. Cue Picasso with the silver spray paint. I “planted” the trees in two white pots, put pine cones around the bases and added battery-operated lights.
I’ll let you judge for yourself whether these look like Christmas decorations or trimmings for some unnamed “occasion”, but regardless, I very much enjoyed my first foray into exterior Christmas decorating.