Miscellany

Kinda Proud of Myself for This Christmas Decoration Hack

December 26, 2020

This photo above is from Christmas 2018 and shows what the front patio area of our house looks like in a normal year when I do the exterior Christmas decorations. I’ve skipped a couple years recently for personal reasons — including last year. With all that we’ve gone through in 2020, though, I was really excited to put all this back up right after Thanksgiving.

But there was a problem. As you can see in the photo, we have a really large white planter and several decorations “sit” in the planter. It’s been filled almost to the top with soil for years, so it’s been easy to place those items in the dirt or on top of the dirt and everything looks perfect.

The problem this year is that I emptied the planter over the summer! No dirt. Totally empty. There was nothing in there to hold the wooden candy cane in place, to hold the silver & gold branches in place, or to sit the oversized ornaments on.

But when I was building this a month ago, I came up with an idea and made it work. This is what it looked like even without any soil in the planter.

Not bad, right? Everything’s in there, it’s all standing straight up, and not just leaning against the edges of the planter. The two oversized ornaments that usually sit on the soil have been placed elsewhere this year, but it still works and looks good IMO.

My solution? Styrofoam!

I’d saved a bunch over the summer after getting rid of the soil — had a feeling it might work to recreate this little part of the Christmas scene, and I was right.

A few strategically-placed pieces of styrofoam, held in place by a heavy bag of river rock, and it turned out perfect. Here’s how it looks from above.

By next winter, I expect the planter will once again be filled with soil and I won’t need to get creative again. But at least for this one year, I’m kinda proud of myself for this little decorating hack. Good job, McGee.

And as long as I have you here … Merry Christmas!!!

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