If you’re here because you’re in search of outdoor living space decorating ideas for the holidays, welcome and come on in! If you’re here because the holidays are on upon us and you aren’t looking forward to any of it, but are in search of something to distract yourself from the feelings of dread that come with trying to do it all anyway—we get it. Come on it, pull up a chair, and just enjoy some pretty pictures. Maybe score an idea or two that will help you dread it all a little less.
The staff at Big Bend Landscaping loves getting together with our family and friends. And the holidays are the perfect excuse to do just that. So, we’re always looking for new ways to incorporate our outdoor living spaces into our celebrations. We’ve accumulated some outdoor living space decorating ideas we thought we’d share with you, along with a couple of fun additions for the kids in our lives.
If you live in the St. Louis area, then you already know that it’s chilly out there. But don’t let that stop you from enjoying your outdoor living space.
Lots of people decorate the front of homes during holidays. Some are satisfied with just a few strings of lights, others put up entire displays. Who hasn’t jumped in their cars with their family and driven around their community looking at all the pretty light displays?
But decorating your outdoor living space for the holidays can be fun too. Namely, because you do it for yourself and your family and friends. Wanna cover all the trees in lights? Go for it! String elegant white lights across your yard!
Twinkling Lights
Christmas Lights are a given, of course. The only limit is your imagination (and safety, of course). Following are just a few ideas you can use to create that Christmas glow. The only question is—how much is too much? And the answer is: when you’re satisfied.
You can wrap them around trees, backyard ornaments, fencing, raised beds, and more! Here are a few more ideas:
- Use tube lighting
- String Outdoor Edison (filament) Bulbs.
- Vintage Christmas lights
- Kerosine lantern (kerosine removed) filled with fairy lights.
- Solar fairy lights are awesome! You can stuff them inside wine bottles or jars or wrap them around bird feeders or the backs of chairs.
Candles
When decorating your outdoor living space, don’t dismiss candles. They’re inexpensive and easy to store when not in use. Setting candles all over your outdoor living area and lighting them just before gatherings creates a warm, intimate atmosphere. You can set these on the counter of your outdoor kitchen or on tables as part of centerpieces. Or you can place them in attractive holiday-themed lanterns and place them on other flat surfaces.
Concerned about a fire hazard or have pets or children who might turn them over? Consider flameless candles. There are a lot of beautiful options available. You can set these on any flat surface, on the top of retaining walls or raised beds, or you can place them inside lanterns and hang them from trees or eaves.
A Roaring Fire
This is the perfect time of year to light up your fire pit or outdoor fireplace! People will congregate near the warmth of the flames and sip on hot drinks. You can place Christmas decorations at a safe distance from the fire—tie bows on chairs, or provide attractive Christmas-colored pillows and blankets to create a cozy atmosphere.
If you have seating walls around your fire pit or fireplace—even better! You can string lights along the back or place lanterns nearby. Also–if you don’t yet have a fire pit, contact Big Bend Landscaping below or give us a call. By this time next year, you could be enjoying hot drinks around your very own fire pit.
Serve Yourself Bar
Setting out drinks and mixes for drinks will simplify your life as a host or hostess and let your guests choose what they want without feeling self-conscious about their choices or feeling like they are imposing on the host or hostess. This is a nice touch, whether it’s a small intimate gathering, a large party, or just your family hanging out around the fire pit. If you have an outdoor kitchen, cleanup is a snap. And even if you don’t, using trays and folding tables keeps it simple too. Kids especially love making up their own concoctions. And if you want to provide adult drinks too, you can set those up in a different location or out of reach. There are lots of mix-your-own recipes available out there. Here’s just a few for adults. And more for the kids.
Decorating Your Trees
When you have trees, decorating your outdoor living space is a snap. Hanging lanterns or mason jars with fairy lights from the branches has a magical effect. Especially if your trees are old enough to create some shade.
Don’t have any trees or only small first or second year trees? Don’t despair. Decorate them with tiny, twinkling lights.
You can even put up a weatherproof Christmas tree or two and cover them with foods that small animals might enjoy.
Use What You Find in Your Own Yard
With outdoor living space decorating ideas, natural decorations — things like grape vines, deadfall branches, wax-dipped leaves, pumpkins, acorns, pine cones, attractive rocks, dried flowers and grasses—are a wonderful addition to any setting, but especially during the holidays. And many of them can be found in craft stores.
But people often forget to check in their own yard. So, before you head out to that craft store, check your own green space for the items you need.
Pine cones lend themselves well to Christmas crafts (lightly spray painted with glitter and paint) and look great when placed on a platter or in a bowl along with a strand of battery powered fairy lights. Small tree branches can be wrapped in lights and placed in a floor vase or as a centerpiece.
If your trees have dropped their leaves, you can gather a variety of them and dip them in a clear wax so they can be added to flower arrangements or spread across the center of the table. Here are the directions.
Plan ahead next year and you can dry some of your own flowers from your flower beds to use in Christmas arrangements.
Freshen Up Your Flower Pots and Raised Beds
If your flower pots, window boxes, or raised beds look barren in the aftermath of hard freezes, take heart! You’ve just gained a great tool for decorating your outdoor living space. Think of them as vases with dirt in them. You can still use them. Just fill them with dried flowers, pine cones, juniper branches, or other greenery. Bundle them together with ribbon or stiff fabric and stick small gourds, pumpkins or Christmas ornaments in among the greenery. You can even add a few winter-blooming flowers. Here’s some more information here.
For Kids: Winter Wonderland
When you’re thinking about outdoor living space decorating ideas, don’t leave the kids in your life off the list. The backyard is often a child’s favorite place to play. There are few rules out there and they are free to explore the world through their imagination without worrying about having to explain themselves to anyone.
So why not turn it into a winter wonderland just for them? Decorate their club house and their outdoor climbing equipment!
Feeling ambitious? Set up a Christmas village in an outbuilding or Santa and Reindeer scene with figurines or lighted wire statues. Wrap lights around tree trunks, set up little stories for them to read. Your children will never forget the gift you’ve given them.
You can even make your own fake snow!
Now that you’ve got some outdoor living space decorating ideas! Go celebrate!
We hope you’ve found some useful outdoor living space decorating ideas on this list. And if not, we hope you enjoyed reading about them. See some pictures of fire pits or other outdoor living features you’re curious about? Call us so we can set up a time to come out and talk to you about adding to your own outdoor living space.
For over twenty-five years, Big Bend Landscaping has been the St. Louis homeowner’s go-to-choice for building beautiful, long lasting paver walls and other outdoor living features. We have 62 five-star reviews on Google and an A+ rating with the BBB. Our crews have a Level 1 Certification from the National Concrete and Masonry Association. This means we’re experts in our field. Check out our testimonials to see what our customers are saying about us.
We built all of our hardscaped features using only the best products on the market, such as Pavestone, Romanstone, and Belgard products. Each of these companies provides lifetime guarantees for normal use pavers. And they all offer a wide variety of looks that can be mixed, matched, and customized. Feel free to visit with
Our experts can come to you and help you design an outdoor living space you will never want to leave. We will give you a CAD drawing of the space we discussed and the projected costs. Once we start the job, you will find us to be efficient and clean. And we will never make a change without discussing it with you first.
Big Bend Landscaping knows how to help you make the most of your outdoor living space. When you’re ready to make a change, check out our website for more details and contact us for more information!