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What holiday decorating covers

Outside, that is the entrance read as one piece: planters either side of the door, a wreath sized to the door rather than bought to a standard diameter, and garland where the architecture asks for it. Inside, it is the surfaces people actually gather around, which in most houses means the mantel, the stair rail and the table.

For businesses it is the same work at a different scale, usually across more than one entrance and to a date that cannot move. That is covered on the commercial and storefront page.

The calendar is the hard part

Holiday decorating is not limited by ideas or materials. It is limited by the weeks in which the work can physically be done. Outdoor installs happen while the ground has not frozen, because stems still push into the soil and everything cut from that point holds its shape through to March. After the freeze you are wiring greens to a solid block.

In practice that means the first two weeks of November, and the last two weeks of November fill first. Decisions made in October get the good dates. Decisions made in December get whatever is left, which is usually nothing. The installation page sets out how that works and where the cutoff falls.

Fresh, faux, or both

Fresh cut greens outdoors are the better choice in this climate, because the cold preserves them: nothing in a winter arrangement is alive, so it holds until the thaw with no watering and no upkeep. Indoors, where it is warm and dry, good faux earns its place and comes back every year.

One rule carries across both. Lights go on after the arrangement is finished, never before, and then you stop touching it. In December your entrance is seen in the dark far more often than in daylight, so pale elements and strong verticals do more work than fine detail.

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