# Yard Jollying? The Xmas Equivalent of Yard Haunting



## Marrow (Feb 23, 2011)

We've all seen them. Houses decorated with thousands of tiny fairy lights. Animated elves. Fake reindeers on rooftops.

So is there any competition between us Halloweenies and them Christmassies?

Discuss...


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

There's a definite difference between the two camps. When an Xmas guy decides to do Halloween, most seem to create lighted discos with loud blaring pop music. They seem to use Halloween as a warm up for Xmas. When Halloween folk decorate for Xmas, it's always a little more low key. Probably because we're still recovering from the 31st. There are a few who go all out on both holidays, but they seem to be the exception and not the norm.


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## Marrow (Feb 23, 2011)

Agreed.

If I were to do a Xmas display, it'd probably feature a snow-coated pathway lit by lanterns twisting through a dense forest of Christmas trees.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Marrow said:


> Agreed.
> 
> If I were to do a Xmas display, it'd probably feature a snow-coated pathway lit by lanterns twisting through a dense forest of Christmas trees.


...with zombies with Santa hats...


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

I keep flirting with the idea of a spooky Christmas theme. I've thought about leaving the fence and columns up and then uplight the house in red that slowly fades to green. Create nice dramatic shadows, while playing Christmas songs in a minor key. It would be festive, but just a little off.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Might want to refer to it as something other than "jollying".


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## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

What I don't understand is all the people who say "If this is what you do for Halloween, I can't wait to see what you do for Christmas." I don't get it. What does one have to do with the other? I put yard ornaments out at Easter, and bunting and flags out on July 4th, and noone asks what I will do for Halloween or Thanksgiving. I decorate for Christmas, in fact, this year I put up some Christmas trees with white lights and red bows that looks like dog sh..., never mind. But I wonder if the people who go all out for Christmas ever hear "If this is what you do for Christmas, I can't wait to see what you do for Halloween."


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## Marrow (Feb 23, 2011)

I like the idea of decorating a house for Christmas, but Yard Haunting makes more sense. After all, Yard Haunts are for trick-or-treaters who will be walking up to your front door.
No-one will be walking up to your door on Christmas, so why bother?

And also, I think there is a lot more variation and creativity in Yard Haunts than Christmas Houses. They all seem so formulaic: fairy lights, lighted reindeer, lighted santa, real snowmen, lighted snowmen, elves, and the occasional crashed sleigh. Made from fairy lights, of course.

I believe we Yard Haunters are superior.
:smilevil:


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## Wildcat (Nov 3, 2007)

I would have to do a Calvin and Hobbs scene. I know it's not X-mas but it'd still be fun.


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

Marrow said:


> After all, Yard Haunts are for trick-or-treaters who will be walking up to your front door.
> No-one will be walking up to your door on Christmas, so why bother?


And that right there is the main reason I enjoy Halloween so much. Everyone is so busy and wrapped up in our own lives, most of us don't even know our neighbors. Christmas is usually confined to close family and friends. Halloween brings everyone in the town to your neighborhood. You get to meet so many nice people. Granted you get a few kooks too, but I like that part as well.  You also get to meet your neighbors. Everyone waves at me when I am out working in my yard now. Halloween is just one way I can give back to my community. Plus it's a ton of fun!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

The next neighborhood over from ours has a group of houses in a cul-de-sac who go all out for Christmas when it comes to decorating their yards. One house in particular is so over the top that I don't know how they can afford the electric bill when it comes due in January We always try to walk or drive past every year so we can see the displays there.

As much as we enjoy seeing what folks like that do for their yards, it's not what I want in ours. We put lights on the house and some of the bushes and dogwoods - blue and white - with a string of green on the porch railing. It's simple and lovely and serene, and that's what Christmas is about for me.

On a more practical note, if we did the yard and house for Christmas the way we do for Halloween, the house would look like it was occupied by a couple of hoarders:jol:


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## Lunatic (Oct 3, 2006)

Yeah, Xmas and Halloween aren't the same and I keep my Winter Holiday decorating neat and clean with some lights outside, wreaths, window candles and a Xmas tree in the front window. Some people go over the top and I respect that as much as I respect what we do at Halloween. It's all good. I find it quite comforting while gazing at everyone's Christmas lights. It's a wonderfully calm feeling after the busy Halloween season.


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## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

Who has storage space to do both holidays in a grandiose manor? I have 2 or 3 bins for Christmas lights and decorations, and no more space available for more.


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## Drago (Sep 5, 2011)

2 strings of lights, one reindeer, one mama duck with 2 youths, that's all I got, more than enough.


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## Hauntiholik (May 17, 2006)

Drago said:


> .....one mama duck with 2 youths,


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## Drago (Sep 5, 2011)

Lol Haunt, just what I had in mind when I wrote it.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

I thought "yutes", too.


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## GCWyatt (Aug 30, 2012)

My wife and I were wondering what fellow haunters do for Christmas. We would love to have equivalent displays, but I just don't think it's possible. As others have pointed out, no one has that much time, money, energy, and storage for that much stuff. And then there's the basic difference between Halloween and Christmas - We don't have dozens to hundreds of people roaming our street to come up to our door asking for candy canes and gingerbread cookies. There are neighborhoods, the legendary Candy Cane Lanes of America, that do massive yard displays, and those are the same neighborhoods that need traffic control for most of December. 

For me, Halloween is about ToTs daring to come up to my door, braving to go through my graveyard, and edging past everything that might jump out at them all for a Fun Size piece of candy; teenage girls screaming at a $14.95 dropping spider; moms and dads waving from the sidewalk and shouting out how much they like our display; my neighbors reading the epitaph on my latest tombstone while their kid, who does his own display right across the street, offers to loan me his extra strobe light while I offer to fix his broken fog machine; and most of all the ToTs themselves when they're polite and appreciative, say Thank You and stop to compliment everything you've done to make Halloween special for them.

By contrast, for me Christmas is about Jesus. Any yard display is secondary, no, tertiary after primacy of the celebration of the birth of Christ, and the indoor decorations, and the food. Cant forget the food. Honestly, while I like the tree and the wreaths and everything they're all pagan in origin and don't have anything to do with the actual reason for the holiday. Therefor, I just don't feel going overboard with outdoor Christmas decorations does anything to promote the real holiday. I suppose one could do a nativity, but I'd feel like I'm leaving the Holy Family out camping on my front lawn. So, I'm going to make some large presents, decorate our coral tree, light the house, and hang a swag and a wreath.

As a footnote, my wife would like you to know that she disagrees with me and many of the posters here. Se feels it is entirely possible to treat outdoor Halloween and Christmas decorations as complete equals and to do totally comparable displays. We shall see who is right.


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## Death's Door (Mar 22, 2006)

I decorate for Christmas with white lights on the porch columns and green lights on the bushes around the porch. Inside, a string of lights on the pantry and on the antique china cabinet and colored lights on the tree. I use a lot of candle displays and pine swags throughout the house. This actually pales in comparison to Halloween.


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## Offwhiteknight (Sep 17, 2008)

Gotta be honest, I kinda go bonkers for both. In fact, I've been doing over-the-top Christmas displays longer than I've been doing big Halloween displays.

Well, not as big as some of you guys, but bigger than anybody in my neighborhood. Both of my displays can be seen from down the block, day and night. 

I think it'll be Christmas that pushes me into more electronics. I like my creepy PumpkinKreeps and the like for Halloween, but Christmas is about lights, lights, lights and more lights. I've been able to accumulate something over 2000 lights by now, which is nothing compared to the big boys (though the average house is probably a few hundred at best) and they do connect to a Mr. Christmas light/music controller. But I'm getting the itch to get into Light-O-Rama ($300+ for the starter kit) seriously, which will probably then pull me into various eletronic updates for my yard haunt...

Between the two, I think I like Halloween more and it engages my creativety and challenges me more. But there is a certain satisfaction to seeing peoples faces when they know you have more lights on your one house than their entire block.

(btw, my electric bill barely goes up. Between LEDs and the light controller, the lights aren't actually on that much, saving me big bucks in electricity)


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

I became a "Yard Haunter" after my wife insisted that She was going to be responsible for decorating the house for X-mas. She won't let me do it because she knows that It would start with a LOR and just keep getting bigger. I went with Halloween instead and now I can say, I think I got the better deal!


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## Slanks (Feb 21, 2009)

We do both as well. A large yard display with a couple dozen pneumatic props for Halloween and then a quick tear down a set up for Christmas. For Christmas, we re-side our house into a Gingerbread House along with Snowmen and Elves decorating trees. We also have a light show.


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## Wyatt Furr (Jun 5, 2006)

scareme said:


> What I don't understand is all the people who say "If this is what you do for Halloween, I can't wait to see what you do for Christmas." I don't get it. What does one have to do with the other? I put yard ornaments out at Easter, and bunting and flags out on July 4th, and noone asks what I will do for Halloween or Thanksgiving. I decorate for Christmas, in fact, this year I put up some Christmas trees with white lights and red bows that looks like dog sh..., never mind. But I wonder if the people who go all out for Christmas ever hear "If this is what you do for Christmas, I can't wait to see what you do for Halloween."


I get a lot of that every year. I suppose people figure if you are a decor-whore for Halloween you must then be one for Christmas. I actually do more INSIDE for Christmas, with 8 trees in the house all with different themes. Outside is never as elaborate as inside. Now, if I was retired and had lots of time.......Well that's another story.


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## studiokraft (Feb 7, 2012)

scareme said:


> What I don't understand is all the people who say "If this is what you do for Halloween, I can't wait to see what you do for Christmas."


Yeah, we get that from visitors as well, my usual response is "What makes you think we have any money left for Christmas Decorations?" 

My next door neighbor goes all out for Christmas so we just have an understanding that Halloween is mine and Christmas is his and we're both happy.


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## studiokraft (Feb 7, 2012)

Slanks said:


> We do both as well. A large yard display with a couple dozen pneumatic props for Halloween and then a quick tear down a set up for Christmas.


That is awesome! Great work on using the features of the house!


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## typoagain (Feb 27, 2012)

I have been doing Christmas for a few years. Halloween is new for me and I have a ton of work to do.
Of my Christmas decorating friends most do some Halloween decorating and they seem to be doing more and more.
But most of us spend years getting our displays just they way we want. So it is hard to do a really big job on both.
Personally, I am started learning Halloween display skills just for my Christmas display.

Let me explain.

MY house has icicle lights, lights around the windows and doors, lights in the trees...all the basic stuff you see all over town. All LED. But they all flash on and off to music. It took 2 years to build all of it and another to upgrade to the equipment I wanted. all in all I will have about 10,000 lights. 
Now I am adding DXM controlled RGB led lights.
But I have decided to start to build Christmas themed, moving props for the yard. For example I have spent quite a bit of time and money trying to build a simple mailbox. But it will be built out of lightly frosted Plexiglass, have RBG lights inside, a door that opens and closes and a flag that goes up and down. All of it mounted on a chandy stripped pole that is lit from within.
building props is a big part of what this group does. So building a prop such as this is a natural fit.
I love Halloween. I love all the ToTs, the pumpkin decorating contest at work, all the fun.
I love Christmas. I will have an open house in early December. The Christmas decorations will be up for my Thanksgiving party (Saturday after Thanksgiving). I will be having 3 different Christmas parties.

But what I love the most is building and creating really cool displays with unique and original props. I love to build it and show it off.
I love the comments from the ToTs. I love getting Christmas cards with thank you notes from complete strangers.

BUT most of all is I love to watch the faces of the families who come to see my work. THAT is the bottom line of it all!


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## MorbidFun (May 8, 2012)

I enjoy both but agree with the sentiments of recovering from Halloween tough to put the same efforts into Xmas after going all out for Halloween


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## Copchick (Apr 10, 2012)

Wow Slanks! That is an awesome display for both seasons! 

I too have to have a recovery period before decorating for Christmas. Christmas is definately not as elaborate as Halloween, but I do still like to decorate with lots of exterior lights, trees and other props. I do have a really cool life size Grinch prop though. Kinda carrying just a little scary into Christmas.


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## Lord Homicide (May 11, 2012)

Wildcat said:


> I would have to do a Calvin and Hobbs scene. I know it's not X-mas but it'd still be fun.


Calvin and Hobbes... a great comic. It's Christmas enough, heh.



Wildcat said:


>


Lawyers on their way to work?


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## Evil Elf (Dec 24, 2013)

For me, I prefer Halloween due to weather reasons. Putting stuff outside, or taking it down, in the fall is much easier than in the winter. Case in point, this past season we had an ice storm of sorts that encased _everything_ in _at-least _2-3 inches of ice. The Christmas decorations were up until it thawed in April. No such case during fall (except for an early snowfall, but that's usually at the end of October anyway).


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## jaege (Aug 23, 2009)

Marrow said:


> I like the idea of decorating a house for Christmas, but Yard Haunting makes more sense. After all, Yard Haunts are for trick-or-treaters who will be walking up to your front door.
> No-one will be walking up to your door on Christmas, so why bother?
> 
> And also, I think there is a lot more variation and creativity in Yard Haunts than Christmas Houses. They all seem so formulaic: fairy lights, lighted reindeer, lighted santa, real snowmen, lighted snowmen, elves, and the occasional crashed sleigh. Made from fairy lights, of course.
> ...


I would agree that we are superior decorators, but that is because a lot more imagination is required. There is a lot more decor out for Christmas than for Halloween. And much of it is already to go and themed, sort of plug and play.

Now imagine if we used our creative genius to create Christmas displays, animated, with lighting and sound.

I've toyed with animated some big Christmas props and have a few ideas, just to worn after Halloween to give it a go.


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## jaege (Aug 23, 2009)

Jaybo said:


> And that right there is the main reason I enjoy Halloween so much. Everyone is so busy and wrapped up in our own lives, most of us don't even know our neighbors. Christmas is usually confined to close family and friends. Halloween brings everyone in the town to your neighborhood. You get to meet so many nice people. Granted you get a few kooks too, but I like that part as well.  You also get to meet your neighbors. Everyone waves at me when I am out working in my yard now. Halloween is just one way I can give back to my community. Plus it's a ton of fun!


Wow. Nice insight. I really like that part too.


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