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Outdoor Christmas Decorations

By , About.com Guide

Design With Christmas Lights
Outdoor Christmas decorations in Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Outdoor Christmas decorations in Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Click the photo for a larger view.

Photo by Wikimedia user NJR ZA, Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0
Holidays are a wonderful excuse to showcase the architectural features of your home. Strings of Christmas lights and other outdoor Christmas decorations let you highlight the details you love most. With imagination, you can also transform your house into something exciting and new. The trick? Choose a focal point, limit your colors, and go easy on lights that flicker and blink.

The owner of this two-story home in South Africa selected solid white Christmas lights for most details. Green, red, and blue Christmas lights add highlights.

1. A subtle band of red and green Christmas lights defines the shape of the roof.

2. White icicle lights illuminate the eaves.

3. Narrow strings of white lights accent many of the window muntins.

4. At the center gable, green Christmas lights transform a conventional rectangular window into the illusion of a grand, classical Palladian window.

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