Decorating a House Front Without Running an Extension Lead

And the one everyone else sees most. A door wreath and two lit windows change how a house looks from the street, while a beautiful indoor tree cannot be guessed at from the pavement. It is also the cheapest change you can make to a building: nothing is drilled, nothing is painted, and it comes down in an afternoon.

It is also the only part of the display that works when you are out. Between 5 and 10 pm in December, the front of the house is lit for everyone who walks past, including on the days nobody comes in.

In the shop: Christmas Wall Hanging — Door or Wall and Solar Garden Tree — 2 Modes, Weatherproof.

It looks bad, it wears through, and in wet weather it is dangerous. An indoor extension lead is not built to sit in the rain: its connectors are not sealed, and that is exactly where water gets in.

Battery models remove the problem for a wreath or a window garland, with a box tucked behind the door or the curtain. Solar stakes push straight into the ground with no cable at all and come up in March without dismantling anything.

If mains power is unavoidable — a projector, for instance — use a lead rated for outdoor use, and bring it out through a window rather than under a door that opens twenty times a day.

Four to six hours after an overcast day, eight to ten after a clear one. In December the overcast day is the norm: expect the lights to go out around 10 or 11 pm, which covers exactly the hours people walk past.

The condition is that the panel sees the sky. Under a porch roof, behind a shrub or facing north, it will not charge — and the product looks faulty when it is simply badly placed.

A layer of frost on the panel halves the charge. An occasional wipe is enough; it is the only maintenance of the season.

One high point — a star, a wreath — a framed window, and a rhythm at ground level along the path. Three levels answering each other make a composition; a single item alone on a large wall looks lost, whatever it cost.

For path stakes, set them at uneven heights rather than in a line. Irregularity reads as falling snow; a straight line reads as airport markers. Three different heights are enough — beyond that the eye stops noticing the variation.

Not facing the room: outside is where they have to read, and you see the inside all year anyway. Fix them at the corners rather than the middle; stuck in the centre they sag onto the pane the first time the heating comes on.

And run them around the frame, not across it. A window is still a source of daylight, and in December there is none to spare. On a ground-floor window, keep the lower edge above eye level from outside: at eye level the bulbs dazzle anyone walking past rather than lighting the frame.