Decorating the outside of your home for Christmas is a great way to brighten up the neighborhood, or just give you and the family something fun to enjoy as your arrive home at the end of every day.
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But if you want to express a little more individuality, you’ll want to shop around for some of the more unusual and unique outdoor Christmas decorations, otherwise your home could look the same as every other on your street.
These Extra Large Christmas Decorations are pretty eye-catching too!
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Here are 25 of the most unusual outdoor Christmas decorations you can buy this year to decorate your home, garden or yard.
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Light-Up Chicken
Starting straight away with something extremely quirky, these light-up chickens with Christmas scarves are ideal if you want to add a touch of fun to the edge of your lawn. Pair them with too many other lighted ornaments and your yard may start to look a bit garish, but as an accent to a carefully curated display they’re the right kind of odd.
Christmas Garden Flag
Perfect for anyone looking to decorate on a budget, this double-sided garden flag is tasteful, with a plaid design that always looks sophisticated as part of a Christmas display. You’ll need your own flagpole though.
Large Christmas Ball Ornament
Oversized Christmas ornaments are a handy way to add some color to your porch or driveway, and these alpine stacked options are easy to set up. They have battery-powered LEDs but you may prefer the look with them switched off. It’s also easy to make your own – more on that below.
Wooden Sled
This rustic wood sled would look amazing leaned against a tree or a wood storage unit outside your home. With natural jute rope and a faded burgundy finish, it has a certain old fashioned appeal that is the ideal accent for a more sophisticated scene.
Plaid Sherpa Blanket
While this year’s Christmas colors are more muted and natural, plaid is still a great choice for adding a touch of homely luxury to a Christmas scene. If you’ve got a chair on your porch, this Sherpa throw will brighten it up and is just a delight if you want to sit outdoors in the crisp chill with a hot cocoa.
Christmas Bow
This large red Christmas bow can be used to add a touch of Christmas to any outdoor space. Either use it to finish off a wreath or an outdoor tree, or simply attach it to your mailbox, over your porch or any other permanent fixture in your yard or garden.
Realistic Fake Apples
This might sound really unusual, but that is the point of this list. Christmas 2021 is all themed around natural colours and items, so if you’ve an outdoor storage unit, decorate it with some plaid accents and a bowl filled with this bright, delicious-looking fruit and it’ll really add a touch of homely charm. And because it’s fake, it’ll last the season without rotting – just beware of any critters or wandering pets that might be fooled.
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Large Christmas Reindeer
Reindeer are pretty common as larger outdoor Christmas decorations, but normally they’re lighted models made from wire. Which makes this more rustic and toy-like wooden reindeer really unique. It definitely borders on the bold, but carefully placed with foliage or more muted colors and it won’t stick out as too bright and gaudy.
Mistletoe Sign
Hang this welcoming sign over a bench or porch seat and you’ll make your home feel even more festive and welcoming. Drape a handful of fairy lights around the edges in simple white colors and a gentle glow will perfectly illuminate your stylish seating area.
Nativity Door Hanger
Door hangers are definitely something that borders on being a little cheap-looking at Christmas, but choose the right one and, when carefully framed by gentle lighting, they can still look pleasant. This nativity scene is one of the more subtle options, being darker in tones and lacking cartoonish features, so it could work as a focal point for the front of your home.
Let It Snow Porch Leaner
Porch leaners are some of the most simple and effective decorations you can add to the entrance of your home. This contemporary option is styled in grey with a check border, welcoming friends and family and acting as a statement piece that doesn’t make too bold a statement at the same time.
‘Fake’ gifts are becoming a staple Christmas decoration for outdoors, helping to round off an outdoor Christmas tree or just add a festive accent to a porch or decked area. These rustic wooden options are made from authentic cedar and are carefully finished in a way that’s stylish without being pretentious.
If you want to spruce up a mailbox, this topper is the perfect size and is simple to install. The bows and ornaments used are completely weatherproof and will brighten up every morning, whether you’re retrieving Christmas cards or just unwanted bills.
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This handcrafted decoration is a pair of painted skis with poles, carefully arranged and attached with wire and evergreen branches to create a charming wall hanger. Attach this to a shed or wood storage hut for a fun and tasteful festive accent.
Another option that is great for a budget, this garden stake is made from corrugated plastic and designed to look like a classic Christmas candy mint. It’s another bold and bright decoration that you’ll want to use sparingly, but the touch of color it brings is definitely fun.
Snowmen, elves and reindeer are your usual lighted garden decorations for Christmas, so shake thins up with this adorable polar bear family. They are fur-wrapped for a more realistic look and wonderfully finished with Santa hats and scarves.
Ideal as a wall hanger or staked into the ground, this is a really unique metal decoration made from old bicycle wheels to look like a snowman. It comes with a hat and plaid red scarf and has a lot of rustic charm.
If you want a lighted decoration to brighten up your porch or yard at night, this crystal sleigh looks the part. It’s one of the more elegant lighted decorations you could look to add to your home, with 100 bulbs making it shimmer and sparkle on those snowy nights.
This traditional red lantern stands pretty tall at 71”, and plays some classic Christmas carols to brighten the mood at home, while using gentle LEDs to simulate falling snow in the lantern head. The one thing that lets this down is the sign that uses a cheap, childish font, but remove this and it looks a lot more sophisticated.
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If the lighted chickens at the top of this list didn’t catch your eye, maybe this ‘festive’ flamingo will be more your thing? It’s certainly a great way to add a quirky touch to your outdoor Christmas scene, though it’s probably best to avoid a whole zoo of lighted animals.
When you look for outdoor Christmas decorations, there are plenty of cheap-looking options that reference Christmas movies. However, this Snoopy dog house breaks that trend – true it’s bold and bright, but it’s really well made and is the perfect addition to a family Christmas home.
While there are plenty of options for classical Christmas tree lights for your garden, you can try something a little more unusual with this peppermint twist tree. It combines that red and white striped candy cane pattern with a fun, swirling design that looks really charming.
The last animal on our list, this one’s a little more toned down in gold and white, with the cute glittering owl ideal for placing on top of a shed or storage hut. This wise bird glitters beautifully at night, and during the day just acts as an adorable feature for your home.
Green and White Christmas Driveway Lights
We end this list with two sets of lights that couldn’t be more different. First, these driveway lights are pleasantly illuminated in a festive green and white combination, adding a bright border to your lawn and really making your home feel welcoming as your arrive on a cold, dark evening after a day at work or out shopping for gifts.
When you think of festive fruits, grapes might not be the first option to come to mind (unless you’re a mulled wine fanatic). Yet these yellow and red grape Christmas lights are super-quirky, super-fun and a great twist on classic string lights. Each grape has its own light too, which makes them look juicy enough to eat. Don’t, though.
How can I decorate the outside of my house for Christmas?
There are so many different ways you can decorate the outside of your house, that it all depends on your budget and your taste. If you can’t stretch to much, then a simple wreath on your front door will add plenty of festive spirit. If your home’s larger then consider a wreath on every front-facing window too – it’ll look stunning.
Otherwise, start to think about lights and any foliage you can bring to your porch or driveway. Prop presents are great, provided you weigh them down if you live somewhere that’s prone to high winds.
And ultimately, just make sure that your outdoor decorations are something that reflects a bit of your personality. You want your Christmas decorations to feel personal, to try to incorporate some of your own family traditions into the look.
Can you put tinsel outside?
Tinsel is safe to be used outdoors, but you should make sure it is properly affixed to any surface. It’s extremely lightweight and so will easily blow away in a gust of wind if it is not stuck or tied down correctly.
This isn’t just wasteful, it could become a hazard, particularly if you live close to a busier road. But generally, tinsel will stand up to the elements, so as long as it’s secure then it’s safe to use as part of your outdoor decorations.
What is the Christmas color for 2021?
A lot of the trends for 2021 are pointing towards natural, earthy tones for Christmas 2021. Expect a lot of handcrafted items using woods, as well as muted, artisanal decorations that are sophisticated – deep reds, browns and soft golds.
One of the other trends to look out for in Christmas is one of homemade decorations. There’s been a real growth in people crafting their own items – unsurprising, considering the time people have had to fill during the lockdowns of the last couple of years. Homemade, natural decorations are definitely one to consider in 2021.
When should you decorate for Christmas outside?
The topic of when to decorate for Christmas is always a hot one. There’s always someone in the neighborhood that gets a little too excited and makes a start as soon as Halloween is out of the way, but most people agree that December 1st is a good time to aim for when decorating.
With outdoor decorations, you might want to start a few days earlier if you’ve a lot to do. It’s important to take your time when decorating outdoors – everything needs to be properly secured, and you need to be careful if you’re climbing ladders to hang lights or other ornaments.
Don’t rush to decorate on a day with bad weather too – there’s no point in battling the elements just to get Christmas started a day sooner.
How do you power outdoor decorations?
Outdoor decorations that need power – lights or anything that plays music – will usually need to be plugged in. You can buy battery-operated decorations but they’re not too common for outdoor use – batteries can only offer so much power, and outdoor decorations need to be bigger and brighter for them to be visible.
So instead, you’ll normally need to run the power into your home, unless you have a safe outdoor socket to use. Most outdoor decorations have discreet cabling that won’t spoil the effect, and can easily run into a home even around the edge of a closed door or window without creating a draught or risking your home security.
How do you hang Christmas ornaments outside?
Different ornaments need to be hung in different ways, but the most important thing is being safe and making sure everything is secure. If you’re hanging lights, you can buy hooks that you can attach to your roof or outdoor plumbing to hold onto the wires, while wreaths can either be nailed into place or hung using ribbon.
With more specific, unusual ornaments, it will depend on what it is, but most items come with the necessary accessories to hang your ornament, along with some form of manual or instructions to make sure you know what you’re doing.
How do you make a light Christmas tree in your yard?
There are three ways to make a light Christmas tree in your yard. You can either wrap lights around an existing tree, whether it’s a conifer or not; you can plant or put up a Christmas tree in your hard, and hang lights on it in the traditional method, or you can buy a dedicate light tree.
These light trees aren’t trees at all – they’re just lights that are wired in expanding circles to give the effect of a tree. These just need to be hung from a higher point in your yard, and if you don’t have something overhead as an anchor point you can just use a pole inserted in the ground – use a black one and it’ll barely be visible at night, when you want the light tree to really stand out.
How do you make big ornaments?
If you want to make your own giant ornaments to put in your garden or yard, it’s pretty easy, but it’s a fun hack. You just need some large plastic balls – the kind used as exercise balls – and a large food can, as well as paints.
Inflate and clean the plastic ball, then paint it in your chosen color – acrylic paints will stick best to plastic, and anything metallic in color will help the ball look more sophisticated. Clean the food can and sand down any sharp edges, and spray it in metallic gold, and then glue it upside-down to the ball and you’ve got the ornament hanger.
So, how do you decorate the outside of your home at Christmas? Are any of these unusual ideas catching your eye? One thing that’s clear is that it’s really easy to find something a little more unique, to help your home stand out and to really make it feel like something personal to you and your family too.