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How to Turn Your Yard into a Winter Wonderland. Winter drags on cold, bleak, and gray ... unless
you punch up your house's decor with some color, fun, and seasonal cheer. You will need
Snowmen Painted wooden cards Lights Wrapped boxes Ribbon Candy canes Wooden soldiers Spray
frost Santa and reindeer Pinecones and homemade ice rink. Step 1. Create snowmen complete
with hats, carrots and button eyes shaped in an attitude of welcome. Turn them into
a choir clustered around one another with painted wooden cards meant to look like sheet
music, as if singing to the neighbors. Step 2. Trim the home in lights. Line the driveway
and porch with brightly wrapped over-sized packages, candy canes, and wooden soldiers.
Run bright, cheery, wide ribbon over the snow-covered shrubs. Step 3. Decorate windows with spray
frost effects or bright happy phrases, stickers, or faces. Place candles in each window that
shimmer on the snow at night. Step 4. Transform the yard into a winter wonderland by erecting
an inflatable Santa and animated reindeer with lights. Dramatize the scene with floodlights.
Step 5. Festoon the trees, bushes, and hedges with lights. Add berries or pine cones and
evergreen wreaths with bright bows on the door or a fence. During the spring, add garden
plants such as dogwoods, holly, or hemlocks to start building a winter landscape look
later that year. Step 6. Save and use yard bushes, tree branches, and ornamental grasses,
along with dried heather or cone flowers. They enhance the front of the house during
the winter. Vary the colors, shapes, and textures to create interest. Step 7. Flood the backyard
and make a skating rink for family and friends to enjoy. Pipe in music and invite friends
and family over to add to the festive spirit of the season. Did you know The ancient Mesopotamians
held a 12-day festival on the Winter Solstice to honor the god Marduk 's conquest of the
monsters of chaos.