How to Decorate Your
Exteriors for Christmas

How to Decorate Your Exteriors for the Holidays

Whether ambitiously extravagant or spare and refined, fresh garlands and wreaths have always been classic hallmarks of Christmas. Perhaps it is winter’s dormancy that spurs our desire to deck the halls, doorways, and walkways with all things evergreen and to dress our designs in exultant shades of red, the ultimate complement to this prolific and versatile color scheme. As if honoring the soul of spring, we are drawn to the heady leaves and branches of the season—pine, boxwood, mistletoe, and holly—and we embellish them festively with fruits, berries, and other earthy treasures foraged from the plentiful autumn harvest. These aromatic adornments are the beloved icons of our holiday landscape. Displayed outside our homes for all to see, the jubilant welcome symbols are expressions of our hospitality, extending kind invitations to acquaintances old and new.

How to Decorate Your Exteriors for the Holidays

Greenery heavy laden with red apples, kumquats, and pomegranates is sustained by the magnificent stone structure of this sturdy mailbox. Fragrant evergreen arrangements mixed with golden gleaming orbs, clusters of red berries, festive red feathers, and oversized bows made of bright ribbons bring decorator style to ordinary objects. 

How to Decorate Your Exteriors for the Holidays

From house to house, the glorious signs of Christmas appear shortly after Thanksgiving. Nothing can quite compare to the magic and excitement of glimpsing those first decorations of the season. Make a showstopping first impression this holiday with our ideas for decorating your mailbox.

How to Decorate Your Exteriors for the Holidays

Swags of greenery strung with green apples, berries, and tiny holiday lights placed above a doorway and a majestic wreath presiding overhead provide a grand entrance for friends, family, and holiday party guests. Fragrant evergreen arrangements mixed with gleaming glass orbs, clusters of red berries, large pinecones, petite jingle bells hanging from gold cording, and oversize bows made of bright red velvet and wired metallic-mesh ribbons bring decorator style to ordinary objects such as garden statuary, mailboxes, and street signposts.

How to Decorate Your Exteriors for the Holidays

A mailbox piled high with waxy magnolia leaves, holly berries, and a billowing golden ribbon promises a very special holiday homecoming. Just a single outdoor arrangement can create instance ambience and curb appeal for the entire neighborhood. Fresh and abundant, season foliage crowned with cheery ribbon offers a variety of textures that bring eye-pleasing softness to an industrial finish. 

How to Decorate Your Exteriors for the Holidays

Just a single outdoor arrangement can create instant holiday ambience and wonderful curb appeal for the entire neighborhood. Fresh and abundant, seasonal fruits and foliage crowned with cheery ribbon offer a variety of textures that bring eye-pleasing softness to neutral rustic finishes such as brick, stone, wood, and metal.

For more outdoor decorating ideas, see our feature “Warm Welcomes” in the Holiday Bliss 2011 issue of Victoria magazine.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Love your magazine. I love everything Victorian. I believe I used to live in the 17th century in my past life. How beautiful everything seems to have been. I’m also a dreamer. 😉
    Thank you for creating and maintaining the Victoria magazine.

    Mirta Rudolph

  2. Have taken your magazine many years ago and still have a few of the holiday issues.The photography and all the beauty they shared was such a highlight every month.
    I took it again a year or so ago and not quite the same but still very unique. Thank you !

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