With fall slowly turning to winter, and stores putting out holiday displays, you may be thinking about dressing up your home and landscape for the holidays. November is the ideal time to start thinking about making your landscape holiday-ready; specifically, to make your landscape not only beautiful, but usable. To inspire you, here are some landscaping ideas for a fun-filled holiday season in Sag Harbor, Long Island, NY.
Related: CREATING A PRIVATE, INTIMATE HIDEOUT WITH MASONRY IN SMITHTOWN, LONG ISLAND NY AREAS
An uninspired landscape can put a damper on holiday spirits. Even if the weather outside is frightful… there are things you can do to make your landscape beautiful whether you’re indoors or out… and ways to draw people outdoors for some winter cheer. After all, your patio shouldn’t be usable only in summer. A few key features can make it a joy to use all year and especially during the holiday festivities!
First, let’s talk about the simplest way to add holiday cheer to your landscape: light.
Dress Up Your Deciduous Trees
Sure, everyone in the neighborhood puts Christmas lights on their evergreen trees and shrubs, but the deciduous trees are often left neglected and bare. It’s a golden opportunity to add holiday cheer to your landscape!
Dress up deciduous trees by wrapping fairy lights around the trunk and lowest branches. This will draw the eye to the light, and take your attention away from the barren branches higher up. If you have several trees, wrap the lights to the same height throughout the landscape for a symmetrical and balanced look.
Add Colorful Bulbs to Outdoor Light Fixtures
Changing out the light bulb colors in ground-level outdoor light fixtures such as flood lights or spotlights gives your landscape an instant holiday flair.
Now is also a good opportunity to update your landscape lighting in keeping with the modern theme of soft, unobtrusive lighting that creates a welcoming ambience without the harsh floodlight effect of old-school landscape lighting. Modern landscape lighting designs favor soft lighting for ambience, but using careful positioning to create safe passage through the landscape as well as enough light for tasks such as cooking.
Make Your Lighting Holiday Ready
String lights are always festive and versatile, whether you use colored lights or white. But, if you use nothing but string lights throughout your landscape, the look could quickly become boring. Mix things up by using string lights along with holiday-themed landscape light bulbs and special touches.
Add large, glowing orbs throughout the landscape (a more chic decorative element than plastic snowmen).
Wherever you hang or position lights, put something reflective close by, such as Christmas balls made for outdoor use. Of course if it snows, the snow itself becomes an amazing reflective surface that can transform your landscape into a winter wonderland.
Create Cozy Gathering Spaces By the Fire
Holiday lighting is beautiful to look at and puts everyone in the spirit of the season. But, it doesn’t make your landscape any more inviting. After all, you have invested in your outdoor spaces, so it’s a shame to only use them in warm weather. Hare are some tips for making your patio cozy in practically any weather.
Your winter wonderland should make you want to be in it, not just looking at it from the kitchen window. Imagine bundling up in a cozy fleece blanket and relaxing by the fire on a frosty winter’s night when the stars seem close enough to touch. The crackling sounds and the warmth of a fire pit or fireplace make the outdoors inviting, and make your patio usable all throughout the year, and it’s an ideal way to make memories with friends and family.
Which type of fire feature is right for you depends on your backyard, your needs, and your design aesthetic.
A fire pit is a relaxed fire feature that encourages people to gather around. Fire pits are typically round or square, and the best will feature a masonry ring with a cap stone that is generous and comfortable enough to warm your feet. Fire pits can be wood-fueled, propane, or natural gas.
For extra coziness, you could partially encircle the fire pit area with masonry seating that has a high back; this will help make the fireside benches more comfortable, and the height will help hold heat in the area - perfect for the coldest of nights! Just add comfortable cushions, pillows and blankets to create the ideal gathering spot.
An outdoor fireplace is a more formal and stately presence in your backyard. Fireplaces can be constructed using kits (concrete blocks which are then faced using natural stone or manufactured stone veneers); or, they can be completely custom. Personalize your outdoor fireplace with special features such as a wood-fired pizza oven, a built-in beverage cooler, attractive storage for wood as well as cubbies to store blankets and pillows, a custom mantelpiece and decorative accents.
Choose wood as your fuel for a fire pit or fireplace if you plan on cooking on an open flame or if you simply enjoy the authentic aroma and crackle of a wood fire. Or, you may prefer the convenience and ease of natural gas or propane.
An outdoor fireplace can be decorated for the holidays with wreaths, string lights, and ornaments. Just bring out some freshly baked cookies and hot cocoa or mulled wine, and you’ve got the perfect spot for a socially distant holiday get-together in fresh air!
A bar-height fire table can become the perfect spot to warm your hands and rest your beverage during winter cookouts. Fire tables are propane- or natural gas-fueled. They are designed for dining with a narrow strip of fire (natural gas or propane) in the center of the table, surrounded by a generous ledge with plenty of room for place settings or cocktail plates.
Fire is absolutely essential for creating a patio that will extend your entertaining and outdoor relaxation beyond the summer season. But, falling temperatures aren’t the only potential obstacles to enjoying your patio during the holidays. You need shelter from rain, snow, sleet, and wind, too.
Shelter from the Storm: a Pergola or Pavilion
A pergola is typically thought of as a summer shelter since its open sides and open roof allow air to circulate and offer relief from the hot sun. However, you can winterize a pergola using clear polycarbonate sheeting that can be screwed onto the roof. This solution still allows for plenty of natural light while sheltering you from rain, sleet, and snow.
A pavilion has a full roof to protect you from the elements. The sides are still open just like a pergola, but the solid roof offers front porch-like weather protection. In winter, the roof helps to hold in the heat generated by an outdoor fireplace positioned along one side of the pavilion.
Placing a fireplace on one side of a pergola or pavilion creates an instant outdoor living room feel. If you opt for a pavilion or cover your pergola roof, you can use furniture that would otherwise not stand up to the elements (i.e. more heavily cushioned furniture).
For extra winter protection for both pergolas and pavilions, you could add a trellis on the windy side of the pergola or pavilion. Or, use a temporary heavy plastic windbreak to make the structure cozier in winter; and remove it once the weather warms up and you’re ready for the summer entertaining season.
Place a holiday tree under the pergola or pavilion and decorate it with lights and ornaments, and you’ll have the perfect sheltered space for socially distant outdoor entertaining (which may be the only way to share the holidays with extended family and friends in the pandemic).
A New Patio Surface
If your patio has a slippery surface, or it is crumbling and unsafe, consider upgrading to concrete pavers or natural paving stones before the deep freeze of winter. This is a bigger investment in your outdoor living spaces, but it will pay off in greater enjoyment and increased property value.
A concrete paver or natural paving stone patio gives you endless design options. For example, you could recreate a patio from a Mediterranean vacation you particularly enjoyed by using tumbled quarried limestone for an antiqued look (or you can recreate the same look using concrete pavers).
Or, you could make your patio look and feel like a luxury spa using large format natural limestone or limestone-look concrete pavers in neutral mid-tone grey for a cool and serene look. You might long for your favorite beachfront resort, and bring back those great memories with textured flagstone pavers or natural flagstone in a sandy color.
You could create the feeling of a secluded woodland retreat using dramatic bluestone; or an urban-chic hideaway that marries the timeless look of natural stone with metal and wood. With so many choices in concrete pavers and natural paving stones, you’re sure to find the style and color that fits perfectly with your home and landscaping. Our landscape design experts are happy to guide you to the best natural stone or concrete paving options for you.
One of the most delightful aspects of installing a new patio is that at the same time, you can add an electric driveway heating system to the patio pavers for a wonderful snow- and ice-free outdoor experience. No more shoveling just to hang out on the patio, and no more slick surfaces that can be a danger for older family members. You might even be tempted to update your driveway and entry walkway and install in-ground heating systems there as well, for greater safety and convenience.
Pops of Color: Masonry Planters
Instead of a complete patio makeover, you could add a few special masonry touches. Adding masonry planters to your paver patio is a wonderful way to dress the space up for the holidays. These planters can be placed on the perimeter of the patio to help define the space. Or, they could be used to separate spaces on a very large patio.
Masonry planters might be home to a few evergreen shrubs which can be decorated for the season. They might house seasonal flowers and once the blooms are spent, they can be filled with colorful ornaments and fairy lights for a festive look.
A water feature isn’t often thought about as a winter focal point since the water is turned off for the season. But that doesn’t mean it can’t still be dressed up for the holidays. Use colored light bulbs and physical decorations to transform the water feature into a winter wonderland focal point.
Masonry pillars topped with decorative objects such as a gazing ball or statue can be dressed up for the holidays. If they’re placed at your home’s entry, they provide a cheerful welcome to holiday visitors.
Related: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO HOW MASONRY IS USED IN LANDSCAPING ON LONG ISLAND, NY