by Susan Keeping

Created on: November 09, 2008   Last Updated: November 13, 2008

If you are entertaining this holiday season, or even if you are not, you will want to make your home as welcoming as possible to whoever might drop by. The first thing people will see when they visit you is your front door; a cheerily decorated door will help them to get into the holiday spirit more easily. There are many ways in which you can decorate your front door to celebrate the holiday season.

The most often used decoration during the holiday season is the wreath. This wreath can be real, made with pine branches, or it can be artificial. Whatever wreath that you do use should look tasteful and attractive and should match your door. The wreath can be decorated with Christmas plants like Holly, pine cones, and even a few Christmas ornaments attached. The wreath should be attached to the door at eye level or slightly above it. You can buy hooks that make it easy to hang the wreath from the door without having to put nail holes in the wood.

Another way to decorate your front door is to wrap it completely in wrapping paper with a huge bow around it. This works best for doors that are flat without windows. Needless to say, you must use strong paper that will not rip easily. You can buy specially designed paper especially for wrapping doors very inexpensively.

You can also decorate your front door by attaching a few iconic holiday figures like Santa Claus, a snowman, or a reindeer to it. These figures are available in most hobby stores. You can buy a number of small figures or you can buy door-sized figures quite inexpensively.

Another popular way to decorate your front door is with lights, you can surround the door with lights. The lights can be either a single color, multicolored, or flashing. Now you can even buy solar powered lights so you don't have to worry about finding an outlet close by.

You might also want to have a holiday door mat that will further help your friends to embrace the holiday spirit.

Whatever you decide to do, just make sure you choose tasteful decorations. A door completely covered in lights would be slight overkill, as would having a huge picture of Rudolph with a flashing nose that was bright enough to light up the entire neighborhood. The smartest rule you should remember for decorating your front door is to keep it simple.

Learn more about this author, Susan Keeping.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.