DIY Outdoor Christmas Decorations for Yoopers

Protect the Exterior Integrity of Your Home with These Tips from Astro U.P.

You want to hang up Christmas lights, but you’ve just invested in new siding and gutters on your house. The good news is there are ways to hang your beautiful holiday decorations without damaging your new investment.

Keeping the exterior of your home in excellent condition shouldn’t be a problem over the holidays if you use Astro U.P.’s guide to outdoor Christmas decorations. With easy DIY instructions on how to hang your lights, you’ll have Christmas decorations handled with ease this year.

What You Need to Get Started

Christmas Lights
Christmas Light Clips
Outdoor Extension Cords
Any Garland or Other Outdoor Decorations

When to Put Up Christmas Decorations

If you were living in a place where it didn’t start snowing in October, you may consider waiting until December even to put your lights up. But, with the winter weather of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, you may want to think about decorating the outside of your home at the beginning of winter weather in October or November. If you can beat the snow, you’re golden! You won’t have to worry about the fluffy white stuff getting in your way or causing an accident.

A good tip is to set up your Christmas lights early, but leave them off until about Thanksgiving or early December. This way you can make use of the great fall weather and get your lights up before the first snow even hits.

How to Hang Christmas Lights on a House

Instead of using the old fashioned staple gun technique, we’ll be telling you everything you need to know about a modern approach to putting up Christmas decorations without damaging the exterior of your home.

One of the most important things you’ll want to do before you get started hanging up your strings of Christmas lights is imagining where exactly you want your sets of lights to be hung. Which sets will be wrapped around trees and bushes? Which lights will go on the front porch and which will go on the roof?

Then, you can get into the preparation stage of making sure all of your lights are ready to be hung. In this stage, you’ll want to go through all of your lights to make sure that they all light up as you may need to replace some of the fuses. You also will want to ensure you have enough Christmas light clips.

How to Hang Christmas Lights on Gutters

You’ll want to start by plugging in your lights to an outdoor outlet or extension cord. Then you can move your ladder to where you would like to hang lights on your gutters. Once your ladder is set up, you’ll be able to attach your light hangers to the gutter.

As you attach the light hangers, you’ll be able to start hanging your lights on the gutters, and as you do, you’ll want to make sure lights are pulled taut from one clip to the next. This will make sure that your lights don’t get caught in the wind, and are tightly hung on your home.

How to Hang Christmas Lights on Roof

To hang Christmas lights on your roof, you’ll want to make sure that you have clips that can properly clip on to your shingles. Stapling your lights will cause damage to the exterior of your home, so this step is crucial. You’ll want to use a ladder to get on your roof, and use Christmas light clips to attach lights to your roof. Make sure that the string of lights is pulled tight between each clip, so they stay in place throughout the holiday season.

How to Hang Christmas Lights Around Windows

For an easier way to hang lights around your windows, try hanging them from the inside of your house! This will allow you to use command hooks to easily hang lights around your windows, and they will still be able to be seen from outside. Depending on the height of your windows, you may need a ladder to help you hang your lights.

Help! How to Fix Christmas Lights

Oh no! Your holiday lights won’t turn on or they’re half burnt out! You’ll want to either replace a bulb or a fuse to get your light sets working again.

To replace the fuse on your Christmas lights, you’ll want to open the plastic flap on the electrical plug of your light strand. This will reveal the fuses, so you can make your replacement.

If you’re trying to use a strand of lights that require bulb testing, you’ll want to use a light tester while your holiday lights are plugged into an outlet to find any bad bulbs. A light tester will let you know which bulbs you need to replace in order to fix your strand of lights.

Holiday Decorating Safety Tips

Decorating the exterior of your home requires you to be at dangerous heights at possible slippery times of the year. Here are some holiday decorating safety tips from Astro U.P.:
Wear shoes or boots that are slip resistant
Don’t decorate the exterior of your home by yourself. Be sure to have someone who can spot you on a ladder or call for help in the case of an emergency.
Keep decorations at least 10 feet from power lines
Ensure all decorations are for exterior use. You should not use any decorations meant for the interior of your home outside.
Try to keeps cords out of walkways to prevent tripping
Put your lights on a timer, so you don’t have to worry about remembering to turn them off each day.

What are you waiting for…Christmas Eve?! Now that you know everything you need to know about outdoor holiday decorating, get those Christmas lights up! If you notice your home’s exterior could use some help while you’re decorating, remember that Astro U.P. has all the supplies you need, including vinyl siding, doors, gutters, windows, and more, to make your home the talk of the neighb orhood again.