Outdoor Christmas Decorating in Florida

Outdoor Christmas decorating in Florida is a different job from the one in the catalogs. There is no snow to hide a cord, no frozen ground to hold a stake, and the afternoon a display goes up can hit 85 degrees with a sea breeze behind it. Most of what fails on South Florida porches in December fails for one of three reasons: wind, heat, or an HOA letter. We design around all three.

Portico Seasonal installs outdoor Christmas displays across Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade, from the bungalow porches of Delray Beach to the arched Mizner entries of Boca Raton and the gated streets of Weston and Parkland. The porch, the columns, the door, the steps and the trees at the entry are our whole focus. We do not touch the roof.

Wind: how we keep the garland on the house

A standard garland tied on with floral wire looks fine on install day and is on the lawn by the second cold front. We wrap columns rather than drape them, secure garland at every 18 inches with coated ties that do not mark paint, and weight the base of every lantern and urn. Wreaths get a hanger rated for the door plus a second anchor point. Lit trees flanking the entry sit in weighted bases or planted urns, never in the lightweight stand they ship with. The wind-safe outdoor decorations guide goes through the method piece by piece if you want to do your own.

Heat and sun: what we use and what we skip

• Artificial garland and wreaths outdoors. Fresh greenery browns in a week on a south-facing Florida porch. We use quality faux greenery outside and save fresh pieces for shaded entries and interiors.
• LED only. Cooler, lower draw, and the warm-white LEDs we use read like incandescent from the street. Everything outdoors is rated for wet locations.
• UV-stable ribbon. Cheap velvet fades to pink by Christmas Eve. We use outdoor ribbon and keep the bows under the overhang where we can.
• Timers and photocells. Lights come on at dusk and go off at the hour you choose, so you are not paying to light the porch at 2 PM.

HOA and condo rules

Most South Florida associations allow holiday decorating within a window, often from the week of Thanksgiving to mid January, and restrict things like roofline attachments, inflatables and anything on common property. A porch-and-entry display sits inside almost every set of rules we have seen. If your community has a written policy, send it with your booking and we design to it. We have never had a display removed for a violation, and we would rather know the rule before install day than after.

What an outdoor Christmas display costs

Christmas is custom, priced for your house. The front porch starts at $1,500, and porch and tree (which adds your main tree inside) starts at $2,500. The whole home starts at $3,500, and estate or courtyard work is priced against the property. Design, materials, installation, travel and the January takedown are all included. Leave your number and we call you within one business day to talk about your home, then your designer sends your design and price. For a full breakdown see what Christmas decorating costs.

What goes into a Florida front porch

A typical Front Porch here is lit garland on the door and wrapped on two columns and the rail, a 30 to 36 inch wreath on the door, a pair of lanterns on the steps, and either a pair of planted urns with greenery and ribbon or a pair of lit trees flanking the door. On a deep Delray porch we will add a bench vignette; on a Boca arch the garland follows the curve and the wreath centers in the opening. Palm trunks near the entry take a wrap of warm white well, and that one move does more for curb appeal than anything on the roof.

No roofline, on purpose

We do not install roofline lighting, gutter lights or permanent exterior systems. In Florida that work means ladders on barrel tile and clips on fascia in the middle of hurricane-season cleanup, and it is a different trade. Our porch-not-roofline guide explains why the entry is where the house is actually seen, and the Christmas light installation page lists exactly what we light.

Timing for South Florida

Installs run the week after Thanksgiving through December 20, with the weekend of December 5 and 6 going first every year. Displays stay up through New Year and come down the second week of January. If you are hosting Thanksgiving, ask about an early install; the weather in late November is usually the best of the season for it.

Ready to book? Leave your name, phone and city and we call you within one business day, or call 954-787-4963. For the tree inside, see tree decorating, and for the whole stretch of the season, our holiday decorating service.