18 last-minute outdoor holiday decorations

 

The holiday season isn’t going to be around much longer, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to decorate. Here are a few quick and easy last-minute decorating ideas for the holidays.

 

1. Lanterns

Whether you use short lanterns to line your porch or walkway, or a couple of tall, old fashioned lanterns for your front porch, adding lanterns to your front yard is a great shortcut to a festive yard.

 

2. Lighting Accents

You might not want to get up on the roof to hang strings of lights this late in the game, so use them as accents rather than the main event. You could wrap them around your porch columns, window panes, or tree trunks for example.

 

3. Front Door Wreath

All you have to do is hang a beautiful, holiday wreath on your front door to make it look like the holidays. Find one at your favorite store, or make one if you’re feeling particularly crafty.

4. Holiday Signs

A cute holiday sign is a perfect decoration for any yard. You could put up a sign proclaiming “Happy Holidays!” in festive colors and fonts, or put up road signs that provide directions to the North Pole and Santa’s workshop.

 

5. Winter Planter

This decoration can be kept throughout the winter if you do it right. Fill a planter with pine boughs, pine cones, and other winter mementos. During the holiday season, put some red and gold ribbon or ornaments amid the other items in the planter. After the season is over, remove the holiday accents and keep the planter out until spring.

6. Accessorize Outdoor Furniture

If you have outdoor furniture protected by a porch or gazebo, add some holiday accessories, like pillows or throws.

7. Artificial Tree

If you don’t have any trees in your front yard or it would be too much work to decorate the ones you have, display a pre-lit artificial tree amid the fallen snow.

 

8. Column Garlands

If you have columns or a railing on your front porch, wrap pine garlands or ribbon around them. It’s a great way to spice up the entire front of your house with very little effort.

 

9. Porch Stockings

Hanging stockings from your porch railing or your front windows is an especially cute decoration for the holidays. If you’re lucky, it’ll snow, and your stockings will have a light dusting of snow on them, completing the effect.

 

10. Line Your Walkway

To make your yard and home seem even more inviting, line your walkway with decorations. You could do this with lanterns, plastic candycanes, pinecones, planters, or anything else you can think of, but the effect will be both beautiful and memorable.

 

11. Window Boxes

Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean that you can’t use your window boxes anymore. Fill them with holiday decorations, like pine cones, pine boughs, ribbon, and glittery ornaments.

 

12. Fake Presents

Wrap a few boxes in festive paper and decorate them with ribbon. Display them on your front porch in cute little piles. You’ll want to put something heavy like a rock or weight in the boxes so that they don’t blow away.

 

13. Accessorize a Ladder or Trellis

If you have a ladder or trellis on the side of your house, use it for a cute decoration. Weave ribbon through the slats and hang ornaments or lights from them.

14. Windows Inside and Out

The great thing about windows is that you can decorate them from either the inside or the outside for a similar effect. Hang ribbon and ornaments from your curtain rods on the inside, and string lights around the outside frame of the window to light up the decorations.

15. Garage Door

Don’t forget to cover your garage door with some great decorations. Use holiday decals or a tarp painted with a holiday scene. You can hang wreaths, ornaments, lights, and other decor from the garage door too. If you’re worried about your decorations being too heavy for the door to function properly, you might look into this particular garage door cable, which is proven to be up to seven times stronger than most other cables.

16. Front Doorknob

Wrap some ribbon or hang an ornament from your front doorknob to invite holiday cheer for all those who enter your home.

17. Pine Cones

Use nature to decorate by piling pine cones in a basket or scattering them along your front porch. If you’re feeling ambitious, add glitter, ribbon, or perfume to the pine cones to make them even more festive.

 

18. Mistletoe

For a last minute decoration before a party, simply hang a bunch of mistletoe above your front door. It’ll give each of your guests a laugh and a surprise when they come calling.