Been Updating Some of my Outside Christmas Decorations!!

 I am going to give you a bit of a sneak peak of our outside Christmas decorations for this year as I did make a few little changes.......

Last year, I bought new garland at Big Lot's and added it in with the old garland that I had for 10 plus years which was falling apart.....

It will still hold up for this year around the front door but I will be looking for a plain evergreen garland to use as the base for the fancier garland that I bought last year....

In the mean time, I moved the garland that was on the front railing and exposed to the elements the most, over to the railing between our front porch and my neighbor's ( remember I live in a townhouse).

It doesn't look too bad......

I then took garland that I once used on the railing going up my stairs inside the house and combined that garland with the new one I bought last year......

I like the way it came out and it looks fairly natural.....

I also wrapped the base of the mailbox that I moved from the back yard to the front yard, with the same combined garland......

I bought new red velvet ribbon both last year and this year at Michael's so I made all new bows......

I also used the new garland around the lantern and the top of the bench.......

At Target, a few weeks ago, I bought this wooden letter, "B"........

You may remember this sled from previous years......

Last year, I decided to paint a "B" for our last name on this sled......

When I mentioned it to Joe, he noticed this "B" when we were in Target and asked if that would work!!

Now did I train him well or what??????

So I painted the B with black spray paint and used E6000 glue to attached it to the sled after giving the sled a fresh coat of paint.......

Looks pretty good I think!!!

I then decided to display it here this year......

It can be seen from our parking lot in front of our houses......

This is how it looks once I decorated the light post.......

Last year, I redid the wreaths that I use on the windows after I took them down ........

But when I got them out this year, I thought they looked a bit plain.......

 So I added some holly berry and pine cone picks to them.......

They apparently look so natural that a few birds have been seen on the wreaths trying to pick the berries off!!!!

Last year, I also re-did the wreath on the front door......

I display this wooden reindeer that my oldest son Joe made for me in Cub Scouts on the front porch but I noticed that the red velvet poinsettia pot that I bought in Michael's many years ago, was really looking a bit weathered..........

This is how it looked 3 years ago and believe me, it didn't look like this when I unpacked it this year!!

So I took it apart and found some greenery in my stash and re- did the pot that I use inside the reindeer planter.......

.

Again, you can see I am going with a natural look........

 I also gave the reindeer a new bow to match all the others....

I also gave my childhood sled, which has graced our porch for many a Winter Season, a new look too.....

This is how it looked last year......

I took off every thing and started from scratch and this is how it looks now.....

 I made a whole new swag out of faux greenery that I had, used one a Winter sign that says" "Welcome to the Warming House" and since I leave this sled out all Winter, used a bow made from gold tinted burlap ribbon......

 I re-hung the skates a bit lower , added gloves and re-strung a set of lights with green wire instead of the white wired ones which found a place on my white park bench.....

 So here is my updated childhood sled.......

 For several years, I was using a combination of real and fake greenery in the pots in front of the railing.....

This year, I mentioned to Joe that I wanted him to look for some nice evergreen trees while out on his walks to use in these pots......

He came back with these lovely branches from a few trees right behind us in the woods........

I liked them so much that I decided to fill the pots using nothing but these branches.......

I really love the way they look........

Great job, Joe!!

I also placed some in a smaller pot to place in front of my chippy angel that I placed on a pot to add a little height to the angel......

And I accidentally took this photo of Joe surveying the whole process!!!

LOL!!!!

Soon, I will be sharing how the entire outside of our house looks decorated for Christmas...

We may be getting a bit of snow in a few days so I hope to take my photos then......

According to our tradition, we do not light up the front of our house at night until Thanksgiving evening, signaling the start of the Christmas Season.....

Next up, I will be sharing my Craft Room Tree.....

So I hope you will come by and visit  again!!

And thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

Hugs,
Debbie

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