Decorating your house for Christmas is notorious for beings stressful. Often it’s cold, you don’t know which lights go where, and which extension cord goes where?! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve helped someone put up Christmas lights in a situation like this, in the end the house always looks beautiful. And the effort was worth it. But what if the effort wasn’t such an inconvenience? Did you know that you can have a beautifully decorated home, and have fun doing it?
My first suggestion is to take a ton of measurements. Measure EVERYTHING. Measure the lengths of the areas that you are putting lights on, like around your roof gables, the windows, around the garage door ect. Make sure that you write down the location of the measurement when you note them. This will help you when it’s time to make your shopping list! I also measure how far it is from where the light strand ends, to the outlet that I’ll be plugging into. That way, I know how many feet of extension cords, and how many connectors I will be needing.
Once you get all your measurements taken and recorded, you can begin to do some design planning. Some people like to have a set way they do their lights every year, and some people like to mix it up. Whatever you want is the best way to go about it; when it comes to Christmas cheer there is no wrong way! I mean heck, even the grinch had a movie made about him! Either way, I suggest starting with a base. Decide some of the areas that you are always going to want lights. I usually choose the roof line, the garage door, my entry doorway and the two largest windows on the front of my home. Then decide what kind of lights you want to put on those main areas. From there you can decide on the added lights to put up around the rest of the house and yard.
Don’t worry too much about matching light colors to your home, it will be dark outside by the time you plug in the lights and you won’t be able to see the color of your home. Just go with what you think will look amazing on the shape of your home. To add flair to your home for the day time, you can add some cute figurines, and wreaths on highlighted parts of your home- on either side of your garage door for instance!
After getting your design all together you can start to make the list of things that you need. Start with the things you already have, and where they go. That way you won’t be getting confused and buying a bunch of random stuff that you don’t need. With your measurements and your designs you will know what kind of lights you will need, and you will know where they go and how long the strands need to be.
When you are done collecting everything that you need, you can finally start to set light up on your home! Something that is very important is to label each strand with the location of where it is to go. That way, when it is time to set the lights up next year, you will know exactly where the lights go and you can just throw them up as easy as pie.
Lay your lights up in front of where you want them to go before you start to put them up. This way things will be well organized and the set up of the lights will seem seamless.
The first year of this is a lot of work. To make measurements and design ideas, it can get as intense as you want it, some people do sketches and diagrams, some people just make a simple list of where they want things to go. (I make a list) Either way, the initial set up is a lot of work. But the following years are so easy! Knowing what you have and where it goes is so helpful. If a strand ceases to work, you know exactly what to get in order to replace it. I wish you all the best in this venture of Christmas decorating! To Peace, Joy, and organization!