Outside Christmas Decorations

Decorating our home around the Christmas and New Year's holiday season has been part of the American way of life for decades. From the simple candles in the window in New England colonial homes, to the outrageous neon palm trees in Miami Beach, everyone has their own ideas about the best Christmas decorations for the yard and home. Most house start with outdoor lights - hanging colored lights or icicle style lights from the eaves, wrapping trees and bushes in flashing colored lights, putting lighted statues of figures in the yard (Santas, deer, giant wrapped gifts, snowmen). In recent years, large inflated figures of Santa and Snowmen have shown up on a lot of lawns. The electronic moving deer are also popular. In doors, you need mantle decorations, Christmas stockings, candy canes, centerpieces, window stickers, Nativity scenes, boxes and boxes of ornaments for the tree - the list can be endless. In this guide, we'll check out some hot ideas on Christmas decor for indoors and outdoors, and find out the best online stores to buy your lights, decorations, and ornaments. Amazon is a good place to start shopping and browsing - they have an entire section devoted just to Christmas decor.

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Best Christmas Decorations - Stockings

There are a bunch of different kinds of Christmas decorations, ranging from things for the tree, to wall hangings, to yard decorations, to table decorations. ChristmasDepot.com is a good place to start looking for Christmas lights and yard decorations. We liked their little battery powered sets of Christmas lights - perfect for places with no electrical outlets, whether an isolate spot in the yard, on a mantle, a table centerpiece - whatever. Powered by two D batteries, a string of 10 lights is just $3 (clear, white, or multi-color). They carry the standard styles of lights - bubble lights, candle lights ($8 for a 5 piece candle set), icicle Christmas lights, motion lights, rope lighting, etc. Their illuminated sculptures are cute, adding some fun to walls or windows. The 17" illuminated Santa face is $16, but you can get lighted candy cane yard stakes for $20, stars, snowflakes, and snowmen as well. You can even pick up a complete Santa suit if you plan on playing the jolly old elf for around $200, complete with belt, boots, and gloves. They carry stars and other tree toppers as well, priced from $10 to $50 for a fancy animated ivory-colored angel. And of course no mantel is complete at Christmas time with a few Christmas stockings hanging by the fire. Apart from Amazon, you can always find seasonal decor at stores like Target or Walmart - and the good news is that simple stockings don't cost more than $10-$15, while fancier ones may set you back $30 or more. Heck, even pick one up for the dog or cat!

Inflatable Christmas Decorations

Bronners.com has been a big name in the Christmas decoration business for 60 years. Located in Frankenmuth, Michigan, Bronners Christmas Wonderland is open year round and carries more than 50,000 decor items and gifts - nativity scenes, Christmas trees and lights, ornaments, collectibles, outdoor Christmas decor, personalized items, advent calendars, Christmas stockings. Two million people the 1/2 mile long lit-up Christmas Lane each year in Michigan, but you can shop online from the comfort of your own home these days. Let's start with their ornaments. Given that they sell over 1 million ornaments a year, you can probably figure out that they have a great selection, popular with shoppers. They have Christopher Radko ornaments, Bradford Edition ornaments (the champagne glory hummingbird at $13 is incredible), personalized ornaments with names of your choice hand painted, Frosty the Snowman ornaments, the list goes on. When it comes to collectibles, they carry products from the Bejeweled Collection, Department 56 miniature buildings, Home Grown, Hummel figurines, Klaus Reinhardt, Pipka, Willow Tree, and much more. For Christmas lights, they have both the C7 and C9 lights (25 pack for $5), multi LED Christmas lights, lighted nets to throw over bushes, wireless LED Candles ($6, runs on 2 AA batteries), even cute Christmas nightlights for kids rooms or bathrooms. Of course they carry personalized decor items as well - stocking with your childs name, santa hats, and laser etched ornaments ($17). For outdoor decor, check out the 32"x36" Holographic Sleigh for $40 - 150 twinkling lights makes it really stand out in the yard. Or how about a giant 36" snowflake ($30) to hang from the side of the house or on a tree? They have classic wooden Nativity scenes ($10 for a tree ornament scene), you can also buy Fontanini pieces and sets to create your own scene for a hall table or kitchen counter. And all kids seem to enjoy advent calendars as they countdown the days until Christmas, budding with anticipation. Bronners has a big selection of the paper-style calendars you hang on the fridge and open a window each day - priced at around $4.

Christmas Tree Ornaments

If you are shopping for ornaments, check out OrnamentShop.com. They've been in the ornament business for over 20 years. They have a huge variety of Christmas ornaments to choose from - angel ornaments, babys, grandparent ornaments, religious, pets, teachers, sports, you name it. For example, they have over 100 different ornaments related to job -- how about a lawyer, mechanic, or doctor ornament? That's a sampling of the variety you can find here. There are over 1000 to browse and look through. The average price of the Christmas ornaments ranges from about $7-$13.

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