Are you ready for Christmas this year? I know I am…And after a year like 2009, I’m looking forward to this Christmas even more. And my favorite part of the holiday season is seeing the colorful Christmas yard decorations set up in front of every house in the neighborhood.

My wife tells me that every year I am unpacking our boxes of outdoor decorations earlier than the year before. When I was a kid, my father used to set them up like clockwork the first Saturday after Thanksgiving…rain or shine. But today, you can see stores like Home Depot setting up their Christmas displays even before Halloween.

If you haven’t been shopping for Christms yard decorations in a few years, you may be surprised at the amazing number of choices and options available. This year you’ll find an almost endless varienty of decorations to install in your front yard: LED lighting, solar powered Christmas trees, holographic images, 8- foot tall inflatable Santas, and even net lighting designed to wrap around tree trunks!

But before you rush out to your nearest home center, take a moment to plan out exactly how you would like your new Holiday display to look when your in-laws pull in the driveway on Christmas Day. Your front yard will be the talk of the neighborhood if you follow these simple tips to install your Christmas yard decorations this year.

Here is a the first question that you need to answer: do you have access to electricity in your front yard? If yes, terrific! You’re in business! But if you don’t, you actually have a few options available to you:

1. Select some Christmas yard decorations that do not require electricity, such as large tree ornaments and an unlit nativity scene. It’s a good idea to set these up under a streetlight, or else close to the house where they can be illuminated by and exterior light after dark. Many homeowners combine these non-electrical decorations with electrical lights, etc. to make their front yard shine in the daytime as well as at night.

2. New technology like solar Christmas lighting is a great way to light up trees and bushes that are beyond the reach of long extension cords.

3. You can always use the tried-and-true method of running a hundred feet of extension cord out to any remote location that you would like to decorate (make sure to use a heavy duty cord for this…at least 12 guage wire).

But you have plenty of juice to light up your front yard, then the sky is the limit! You can start with some lighting close to the house, like icicle lights strung along your roofline or across your front porch. Net lighting also looks great installed over some bushes, shrubbery, and small trees.

However, if you’re ready to really fire up your front lawn, then your decorating options are almost limitless. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the choices of Christmas yard decorations out there. As a starting point, it’s a good idea to pick a theme first. Here are some suggestions of Christmas themes that never go out of style: Elves, Rudolph, Santas’s workshop, Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Frosty the Snowman, gingerbread cookies, holiday characters, toy soldiers, and on, and on, and on…

Will this be a secular display (I.e. Santa), or do you want to feature a religious theme like the Nativity? Do you want to keep this display low-key, or do you want it to be visible from the space station? By the way, it’s a good idea to talk to your spouse at this point if you haven’t already done so.

And here’s the last word on buying your new Christmas yard decorations…You get what you pay for. Today you can find decorations manufacted in dozens of countries to various — and often poor — quality standards. Often these products do not even come with a UL electrical rating. Therefore, if you find an mechanical Santa being sold at an amazing price from an unknown vendor online, you may have good reason to be suspicious about the quality and safety of this product.

Most importantly, have some fun this year with your Christmas decorating! And I wish you and your family all the best for this Holiday season, and here’s hoping that 2010 brings you much happiness and prosperity.

Even seen a solar-powered Christmas tree? Discover the “greenest” Christmas yard decorations for 2009 and save $ this Xmas…

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