Home exterior holiday decorating tips

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Homeowners can help their families and guests get in the holiday spirit without going through the hassles of hanging outside lights. With easy holiday decorations for the entryway and windows, this is the ideal time of year to show off a home’s exterior.

Experts at Therma-Tru Corp., a manufacturer of entryway doors, offer tips for creating a warm and inviting entryway during the holidays:

Seasonal door decorations

• Design a heart-shaped wreath with miniature pine cones and dye them a brilliant shade of red.

• Mount an evergreen wreath or swag with glass ornaments or silver bells.

• Create a wreath with magnolia leaves and fresh fruit such as pears, apples and pomegranates.

• If you have a rustic style home, consider adding antlers, a cowboy hat or rope to your wreath.

• For a coastal home, consider a wreath of woven sea grass with sea shells or a brightly painted life preserver with lights and decorative glass floats.

• If your door doesn’t merit all the attention, consider wrapping it in bright paper with a large bow or framing it in lights.

• Hang a set of sleigh bells on the door knob, which will give a festive jingle every time guests pass through.

Accessorizing the doorway

• Frame the entryway with a garland and lights – add bows or pine cones for more decorative detail.

• Place pots or urns planted with seasonal greenery, poinsettias and lights on either side of the doorway.

• Put out a welcome mat designed with holiday accents.

• Add new brass or nickel accents such as a kick plate, porch lights and a door knocker to dress up the door.

Painting, decorating the door

If it’s not yet too cold to paint outdoors, brighten up your door with a fresh coat of red paint or a strong color that provides contrast to your current color scheme.

When decorating, be careful to protect your door. Avoid putting a nail in the face of the door, as this can lead to damage in the future and could void your door warranty from the original manufacturer.

Use a door hanger to hang a wreath from the door knocker, or place a tack on the top of the door frame and use clear fishing line to hang a wreath.

When it’s time to decorate your windows, the experts at Simonton Windows have provided a list of tips for decorating vinyl windows during the holiday season.

“Our windows are carefully constructed to provide maximum energy efficiency, aesthetic appeal and comfort for homeowners,” said John Stark, with Simonton Windows. “To keep them in good operating condition (and to keep your warranty valid) it’s important to never drill into, or puncture, the frame or sash of your windows. Remember, egress windows  in bedrooms should never be blocked by furniture or holiday decorations.”



Santa’s Simonton Elves got together to recommend the following “naughty and nice list” of ideas for windows during the holiday season:

Window no-nos

• Never put nails or screws in a vinyl window frame to hold up decorative lights or holiday wreathes. Also, do not glue, staple or tape lights to a window frame.

• Do not place lit candles on a window sill or sash.

• Never decorate windows with anything that could impede opening your windows quickly, in case you need to use the window as an escape route during an emergency. For example, don’t wrap garland ropes or artificial pine branches around the window hardware.

• Do not place real pine branches or cones on the window frames or sill. Fresh pine sap can leave nasty stains after the holiday season is over. Realistic, artificial pine is usually available at craft stores around the holidays.

• Although tempting, do not spray “fake snow” from aerosol cans on your windows. The “snow” residue can be hard to remove after the holidays and can hamper the operation of your window if it sticks into the sash or hardware.

Approved window

decorating tips

• Affix suction cups on the window glass to hang glass ornaments, plastic snowflakes or glass icicles so that light can come through the windows to enhance the decorations.

• Hang small wreaths on the inside of a double or single hung window by using suction cups with hooks. Use clear fishing line to loop the wreath gently over the window hardware.

• Swags of garland or evergreen wreaths outside the home may be put up best by affixing to the siding of the house and not to windows themselves.

• Bay and bow windows are the ideal location to position a Christmas tree for maximum viewing, from both the interior and the exterior of the home.

• Make your curtain rods work during the holidays. Remove the curtains and hang ornaments from the existing rods on different lengths of fishing line or colorful curling ribbon.

• No curtain rods? Just add some inexpensive tension curtain rods to the top or middle section of your windows. Hang decorations from the rods with fishing line or garland. Decorate the rods themselves with holiday ribbon or fabric.

• Encourage children to help decorate the windows with static cling holiday window stickers. The peel-and-stick temporary decorations are ideal for putting your home in the holiday spirit.

About Therma-Tru

Founded in 1962, Therma-Tru pioneered the fiberglass entry door industry, and today offers a complete portfolio of entry and patio door system solutions, including decorative glass doorlites, sidelites and transoms, and door components. The company also offers low-maintenance urethane and PVC products. For information, visit www.thermatru.com or call (800) 537-8827.

About Simonton Windows

Founded in 1946, Simonton’s hallmark has been to deliver the industry’s shortest, most dependable lead-times. Part of Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc., Simonton delivers award-recognized products throughout the United States and North America. For information, call (800) SIMONTON (1-800-746-6686) or visit www.simonton.com.