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I put together this beautiful white and gold Christmas decorating idea for a front porch using all solar lights for my in-laws’ new house.
They have steps that lead straight up to their front door, a small roof over that, and columns on the side.
Because there’s no easy access to an outlet they weren’t going to put lights here but since it’s so visible from the street I think they could have such a charming display.
Since the front of the house faces the sun nearly all day, solar panels for string lights should get enough juice to keep everything running through the night.
I went with this color scheme because I thought it would look really elegant with the off-white trim and their wood door.
This is what it should look like when it’s all done.
The porch columns extend from the railing to the roofline. I put a Christmas tree nearly the same height right in front of each one.
The tops of the railings are thick enough to support the tree stand and twine or large zip ties wrapped around the trunks and the columns should hold them in place.
I started with two 3′ tabletop Christmas trees that came undecorated.
I wrapped them in solar fairy lights and added small, white plastic ball ornaments to the branches. You’ll want to twist the hooks on really tight so they won’t fall off.
I wound a wired silver ribbon around the body of each tree from top to bottom. Since this might get exposed to wind and rain you could use paperclips or wire twist ties around the ribbon and a branch to make sure it stays in place.
I finished them off with a large, gold bow tied around the middle.
The solar panel attached to the lights came with a stake so we can run the cord down behind the shrubs that are under the railing and stick it in the ground in front of them.
Solar string lights run across the roof above the porch and the solar panel is attached to the roof. This keeps it mostly out of sight and gives it plenty of sun exposure.
Four large, white, and gold ornaments are hung from the roof between the two columns.
White and gold snowflake window clings were applied to the windows on each side of the door. They look festive during the day and at night, when the inside lights are on, their shape should still be visible from outside.
Instead of using regular string lights, I went with solar snowflake fairy lights.
That’s part of the fun with going solar – there are a lot of interesting shapes and sizes available and you don’t have to worry about how many you can string together before tripping a circuit breaker.
Each string has its own solar panel and you can use as many as you need to cover your shrubs.
A large, green wreath with white flowers and gold balls will hang on the front door.
I put a large, gold reindeer in front of the shrubs on each side of the steps and tied a red bow around their necks. These are not lit but they’re so shiny they’ll still stand out at night.
At each corner of the front door are solar poinsettia stakes in a flower pot. The solar panels are placed on the steps and the cords to them are taped to the porch floor so no one will trip on them.
I think the red along the side of the entry highlights the door making it more welcoming but you could also make these lanterns in white and/or gold and put them there instead.
I had a lot of fun putting this display together and hope they’ll love the idea!