As always, if you’re in the process of selling your home, your winter holiday decorations should be kept to a minimum. You don’t want a potential home buyer to concentrate on your decorations rather than your home’s permanent features. If you’re just looking for decorating tips for an upcoming holiday gathering, you can decorate as much as you wish! With that said, here are 10 tips for sprucing up your exterior for the upcoming winter holidays.

Though the interior can be decorated with more of a personal ambiance, which we will discuss in an upcoming blog, the exterior can be seen from any passerby! Whether it’s one of your party guests, a potential home buyer or someone who’s lost and turning around in your driveway, your exterior can spark a wow factor for just about anyone! According to homeimprovementweb.com, Americans spent $7.6 billion on holiday decorations last year! Here are some affordable tips for lighting up your exterior with a holiday glow:

• Steer away from the current fad for holiday lights. Though it’s tempting to choose the latest fad or newest type of decorations on the market, it’s better to stick with what will attract the greatest number of buyers. Also, when you steer away from the fad, the lights will cost less!

• To noticeably become the brightest house on the block, decorate with pure, bright white lights. Line your roof with large bulbs of white lights, and fill your bushes and front porch posts with smaller white lights. No one will ignore the sight, and you’ll have a classic elegance sure to appeal to everyone.

• Don’t forget about your backyard! If the backyard is visible from the street, or if party guests will be hanging around outside, hang lights around your patio or deck. If you have an exterior speaker system, softly play your favorite holiday tunes.

• Though the daylight hours are shorter this time of year, don’t forget to decorate for daylight, too. Surround posts with simple strands of green or silver garland, and then attach red bows to the garland. Hang a holiday wreath on the front door, filled with pine cones, red berries or silvery leaves.

• Plant a classic winter plant in your garden or in a pot on the front porch. Choose a plant that is native to your locality. So, depending on where you live, choose from poinsettias, white hydrangeas, Christmas cacti, mini pines or any other favorite!

• Make the walkway to your front door stand out by surrounding the sides with outdoor candles. Or, flank the walkway with red and green lights or multi-colored lights. You could also line the sides of your driveway, which is especially helpful when guests are trying to locate your house.

• Use the space that your front lawn supplies. Fill it with numerous small figurines, or decorate with one major scene. Ideas include decorating one giant tree that grows in your yard, setting up a North Pole scene of elves and toys, setting up a nativity scene or plugging in a blowup Santa Claus or snowman. Just remember to choose carefully and to not overdo things.

• Instead of lining your rooftop with lights, opt for a more convenient option of lining everything but your roof! This could include surrounding your front yard with lights, lining a fence with lights, filling all of your landscaping with lights or lining just the windows with lights.

• If it’s too cold for you to be rummaging through your attic or prancing around your yard in the snow, outdoor decorations are not required! Decorate from the inside out. Place your Christmas tree or Hanukkah candles directly in front of your main front window, hang light-up fixtures in your upstairs windows or place a lit candle (you can even get electric ones that don’t require flame) in each window.

• Your front door is what separates your exterior’s décor from your interior’s. Make this an eye-catching masterpiece for your guests to admire while they wait in the bitter cold for you to answer the door. Cover the door in wrapping paper, and then decorate the paper with ribbon and bows to make it look like a giant present! Create a holiday scene with stickies on the glass door, hang a memorable holiday wreath or create a greeting with painted twigs or pine cones.

Now that the exterior is taken care of, stay tuned for a blog with interior holiday decorating tips, coming soon!