Trends in Outdoor Decorating for Christmas
Some things have changed, artificial trees, many of them pre-decorated have displaced the conventional ritual for many overstressed and time deficient parents. Christian families desiring to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas are replacing or supplementing decorated Christmas trees with Nativity displays.
Outdoor Christmas decorating used to be limited to lights on trees and a lighted plastic Santa Claus, snowman or Nativity Set. But outside the house is where some of the biggest changes have occurred. Many homeowners compete with their neighbors to create the most compelling vista on the block or in the entire suburb. These exterior decorators want to add the latest innovation in light, motion and cartoon characters in Christmas motif.
Some of the biggest and best displays have hundreds of figures and over 10,000 lights and become viewing destinations with families driving many miles, often resulting in heavy traffic and police supervision.
For those of us decorating for our own satisfaction or to meet a desire to express our Christian faith and celebrate Christmas in a simpler way, the outdoor display of a large Nativity scene meets our needs.
The use of ever larger, spot lighted Nativity Sets allow many people to put Christ back into Christmas The desire of many homeowners to present unique Christmas displays is driving greater creativity by the manufacturers. Six foot toy soldiers and nutcrackers, some lighted have added fun as well as visibility. Lighted topiaries including angels and sleighs with reindeer allow home owners to blend the season with their existing decorative foliage. Lighted outdoor foliage in the form of garlands, wreaths, pathway lights and bushes using weatherproof foliage have added to this trend.
Inexpensive, lighted three dimensional figures such as Santa, sleigh and reindeer, snowmen and angels are replacing the old fashioned lighted blow mold plastic figures. Every year we see innovative use of new weatherproof materials in outdoor displays. These include crystalline, felt like fabric, mesh, stamped metal and glitter. Licensed characters in Christmas dress, many of them holographic, connect current media culture to Christmas. The array of lighted outdoor figures which has grown to include Christmas carolers and large toy soldiers as well as back yard items such as palm trees and poinsettias, complete the entire outdoor celebration.
In our humble opinion the replacement of Christian Christmas observance in favor of a secular and generic Holiday Season is slowly being reversed.
