free to read, all of it
Ideas & guides
How to measure a front yard, how far apart things want to be, what a number actually buys, and why some displays read from the road while others turn into a jumble.
Everything here uses the same measurements and the same catalog as the plans, so the numbers on these pages are the numbers on the plans. Where an article shows a drawing, it is a real one for a real lot shape rather than an illustration.
Plan your yard
Measuring, spacing, and what actually fits.
How to Decorate a Corner Lot for Christmas
Two street-facing rooflines is the opportunity, not the problem. It is also roughly double the light run, and the budget has to know that before you buy.
- 7 min read
- Christmas
What Does the Listed Size of a Decoration Actually Mean?
Height is measured to the tallest point, which is usually a hat. Width is the number that decides whether it fits, and it is the one listings most often leave out.
- 7 min read
- Christmas
What Is a Sight Triangle, and Does It Apply to My Yard?
The clear-view zone at a corner that most cities cap at around 3 ft. It applies to every corner lot, it is enforceable, and it governs the most-seen square foot you own.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
When Is It Too Early to Put Up Christmas Decorations?
Install early and switch on late. Putting lights up on a mild weekend and leaving them dark until the end of November gets you the good weather without the argument.
- 5 min read
- Christmas
Decorating a Circular Driveway
The island is a stage seen from every side, which rules out flat props and rewards anything dimensional. Everything you place is also inside a turning radius.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
Decorating a Deep, Narrow Front Yard
Fifty-five feet back. Everything you buy needs to be bigger than instinct says, and the lawn in front of the house is not empty space, it is the part of the yard you have that nobody else does.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
Decorating a House With a Projecting Garage
The garage is the front of your house whether you like it or not. Decorate it on purpose, and use the alcove it creates instead of pretending the entry is in the middle.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
Decorating a Long Rural Driveway
Nobody is walking past. You have two audiences, one at forty-five miles an hour and one crawling up your own drive, and they want completely different things.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
Decorating a Narrow Front Yard With a Porch
The porch is the best thing you own and the usual instinct is to park something in front of it. Everything here is seen from twenty feet, which changes what is worth buying.
- 5 min read
- Halloween
Decorating a Split-Level or Raised Ranch
The entry is half a storey up, which is why the landing never works. The long wall underneath it is at eye level from the sidewalk and almost nobody uses it.
- 5 min read
- Christmas
Decorating a Wide, Shallow Front Yard
Seventy-five feet across and eighteen deep. You cannot build depth, so stop trying and build rhythm instead. And the driveway is a third of your frontage.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
Decorating a Sloped or Terraced Front Yard
Height goes up the hill, not down. Your slope is doing staging work a flat lawn has to fake, and the usual instinct throws it away.
- 5 min read
- Christmas
How Many Christmas Inflatables Fit in My Yard?
Three or four on a normal front yard, and the limit is not the lawn, it is the gaps between them. Here is the arithmetic, and the drawing.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
Budget & buying
What a number really buys, and where it goes furthest.
Can I Leave Holiday Decorations On All Night?
Safely, yes, on GFCI and within the circuit load. Sensibly, no. A twenty dollar timer halves the running cost and roughly doubles the life of an inflatable blower.
- 5 min read
- Christmas
Are Plywood Decorations Cheaper Than Inflatables Over a Few Years?
Usually yes, but not for the reason people give. It is not the purchase price, it is that one of them has a motor and a seam and the other does not.
- 6 min read
- Halloween
What Are the Cheapest DIY Halloween Decorations That Look Expensive?
A $14 crop circle, $28 of tombstones and a $34 spider. What makes them read as expensive is that they are large or strange, and neither of those costs money.
- 6 min read
- Halloween
How Much Does It Cost to Run Halloween Decorations for a Month?
Between about $3.50 and $10 for the whole of October. It is far less than people fear, and the expensive displays are not always the thirsty ones.
- 6 min read
- Halloween
Which Dollar-Store Halloween Decorations Survive Outdoors?
Judge the material, not the price. Solid plastic and metal last the month; anything foam, flocked, printed or paper is an indoor piece in a Halloween aisle.
- 5 min read
- Halloween
How Do I Decorate My Yard for Halloween on a Budget?
Under $250 for a complete yard whatever the lot shape, and nearer $120 on a small one. That is the whole display, not a starter kit, and a third of it is usually free builds.
- 6 min read
- Halloween
Is a DIY Fog Chiller Cheaper Than Buying One?
The build is $68 and an afternoon. The bought answer is a low-lying fog machine at $185 upward, which is a different product solving the same problem.
- 5 min read
- Halloween
When Do Halloween Decorations Go on Sale, and What Is Worth Buying on November 1?
The morning of 1 November, and it deepens for about a week. Buy the things that store flat and do not rot; leave the things with motors and foam.
- 5 min read
- Halloween
What $250 Actually Buys for a Christmas Yard
A real itemised $221 yard, down to the cords and the timer, and the one line in it that does most of the work.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
Design
Why some yards read well from the road and others do not.
How Do I Make a Small Halloween Display Look Bigger?
Light the ground, not the objects. A ten-pack of path stakes covers 36 feet for about $24 and buys more apparent size than any single thing you can buy.
- 5 min read
- Halloween
How to Light a Silhouette So It Does Not Look Like Plywood
A flat prop lit from the front is a board with paint on it. The same prop lit from behind is a shape nobody is sure about. The light costs less than the plywood.
- 4 min read
- Halloween
One-Sided Props Have a Back, and Somebody Always Sees It
Flat props look superb from one angle and like a sheet of plywood from every other. On a corner lot or a long driveway, every other angle is most of them.
- 4 min read
- Halloween
Why Your Yard Looks Sparse From the Street
You are looking at objects. The street is looking at light. Four hundred dollars of figures on unlit grass reads as less than sixty dollars of path stakes.
- 5 min read
- Christmas
Lighting
Runs, color temperature, and how much you need.
Do Outdoor Holiday Lights Need a GFCI Outlet?
Yes, and it is not a formality. A GFCI cuts power in about a fortieth of a second when current starts going somewhere it should not, which outdoors in December it eventually will.
- 5 min read
- Christmas
What Extension Cord Do Outdoor Decorations Need?
Outdoor-rated, and thicker than you think for the distance. The gauge number goes down as the cord gets heavier, which is why people buy the wrong one.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
How Many Christmas Lights Do I Actually Need?
One division, and the number you divide by is not the number on the box. Get it wrong and the run ends three feet short of the corner.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
How Many Inflatables Can You Run on One Circuit?
Four, and that is before the lights. The blower runs all night, which changes the arithmetic from the one people do in their head.
- 7 min read
- Christmas
Warm White or Cool White Christmas Lights?
Either is fine. Both is not. The two together read as a fault rather than as a choice, and it is the most common way a display looks unfinished.
- 4 min read
- Christmas
Halloween
The short season, and the one with the tightest deadline.
Do Fog Machines Actually Work Outdoors?
Yes, on a still night, through ice. Straight out of the box on a breezy one it is twenty seconds of grey cloud drifting into next door.
- 5 min read
- Halloween
How to Decorate a Corner Lot for Halloween
Two frontages, twice the audience, and almost everybody decorates one of them. The intersection corner is the most-seen ground you own and it is usually bare.
- 6 min read
- Halloween
Which Halloween Animatronics Can Actually Go on the Lawn?
Read the rating, not the photograph. A great many large props are sold as covered outdoor only, which does not make them unusable. It makes them porch pieces.
- 6 min read
- Halloween
How to Decorate a Small Front Yard for Halloween
Under 30 ft of frontage is not a problem to work around. It is closer to the street, which is the one advantage a big lawn cannot buy.
- 6 min read
- Halloween
How to
Step by step, with the bit everyone gets wrong.
How to Stop an Inflatable From Blowing Over
Use every tether, not just every stake. An inflatable fails by tipping rather than by sliding, and the stakes in the box are solving the wrong problem.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
How to Store Holiday Decorations So They Survive the Year
What ends most outdoor decorations is not the season. It is eleven months in a tote, put away damp.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
Will Yard Decorations Survive Snow?
Cold is rarely the problem. Weight is. A few inches of wet snow on a flat decoration is tens of pounds landing on a frame built to hold up nothing but itself.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
How to Measure Your Front Yard for Christmas Decorations
Four numbers, ten minutes, no tape measure required. Get these and every decision after them gets easier.
- 6 min read
- Christmas
Reading about spacing is slower than being shown it. Pick your lot shape and a theme and the plan draws itself against your actual frontage, with every measurement on it.