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Juanita Rossiter special to the SaltWire network

Two years ago, my farmer brother decided to hang a wreath at the end of the gable of our Prince Edward Island dairy farm.

It is made of evergreen branches, has a bow, white lights, and is mounted on a wooden frame-and it is also very large and heavy. After hoisting someone into the air in the bucket of our tractor and using a three-inch patio screw to drill it into the barn, the wreath hangs.

I do not recommend this. Two years later, it is still hanging there. No one wants to go back to the tractor bucket to unscrew it.

For many people, decorating for the holidays is a joy. However, protecting exterior decoration can sometimes be challenging. Winter in Atlantic Canada means fighting the weather with strong winds, heavy snow and heavy rain.

Jacinta MacDonald of PEI Morrel has collected some useful tips and tricks to protect outdoor decorations in a way that does not damage the bank. She bought zipper ties at the dollar store because "these things are cruel-nothing will be blown away," she said.

She also uses construction staplers and staples. MacDonald recommends using plastic backing ribbons instead of braided ribbons. Otherwise, once they start to wear out, you will have nothing.

MacDonald lives in a very windy place, so she is heavy at the beginning, so she doesn't have to collect decorations and reinstall them.

McDonald used wire mesh at the bottom of the external planting container to secure her green plants in place and prevent it from being blown out. Then, she put the bricks into the flower pot to prevent them from being blown away.

MacDonald also recommends using solid wood products outdoors instead of plastic or Styrofoam. She fixes most of the holiday decorations on pillars or railings, and always nails the ends of the bows to the nails. If not, she explained that if they were flapping, the wind would immediately wear them.

MacDonald also used excavator irons (or tent nails) to secure her wooden reindeer underground.

NS resident Nancy O'Halloran is rooted in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Kentville, Nova Scotia. She believes that regardless of culture or religion, holiday decorations can be carried out in a neutral manner to spread joy during the usually gloomy period And share the year of creativity.

She said that the wreath has a timeless repetition of universal and non-religious meaning and can make a great contribution to external holiday decorations.

But she recommends skipping the wreath hanger. O'Halloran uses sticky tags with hooks and pads the back of her wreath with fabric and electrical tape so that it does not damage the siding of her house. She also uses these tags to hang her external wooden signs.

Like MacDonald, O'Halloran likes to use greenery in outdoor holiday decorations. One technique O'Halloran used to lower outdoor flower pots was to place the dead chrysanthemum pots from her fall decorations in her holiday pots and buckets as a basis for filling it. She also suggested using sandbags and chilled water in flower pots to increase weight.

O'Halloran is a medical lecturer during the day, and he emphasizes the need to ensure the safety of all outdoor holiday decorations.

"You have to be safe and consider others. You don't want the decoration to be blown away and become dangerous," she said.

TD ("Eddie") Edison is a self-employed carpenter living in St. John's, the Netherlands. She said that the influence of wind and frost is always the first consideration for everything she builds.

Edison suggested using pull cords or ropes to fix and support the exterior decoration in the wind, and provide specific instructions on how to operate:

Set connection points on your holiday decorations, and you can easily connect pull wires or wires.

Pre-drill holes in wooden decorations, or attach eye bolts or similar hardware to your decorations. These can be found in smaller sizes at any hardware store. You can then use it to connect a clothesline or other ropes or lines.

The clothesline is easy to find, relatively cheap and easy to use. It has different weights and colors, from transparent to green or even blue. It has a soft plastic coating on it to prevent corrosion and make it easy to handle. You can easily make the ring and secure it with a simple metal clip made for this purpose.

From natural fibers to nylon and polyester blends, choose ropes that are easy to knot and knot. Although it is the cheapest, most acrylic ropes are difficult to knot firmly, and tend to be stiff and slippery.

Using wooden stakes or grounding screws, insert them into at least three places around the decoration to support and stabilize it from wind in all directions. The grounding screw used to attach the dog leash works very well and is usually stainless steel, but if you can nail the stakes into the ground at least one and a half to two feet to be strong enough, you can also use stakes to hold it.

The corner stakes or landscape poles or poles are kept away from the decorations so that when you tether or wind a thin wire rope around them, it will not slip off the stakes.

Edison further added that turnbuckles are essential for shortening and tightening pull cords and ropes.

She said that sometimes it can be embarrassing to tie or loop a rope or clothesline to the ground stake and your decorations, and recommends that you choose turnbuckles with closed holes instead of open hooks.

But be careful—Edison said that even if you fix it in three directions, your work will still move a little in the strong wind, and the open hook will break.

And, she added, if you drill holes in wooden holiday decorations, be sure to leave enough space at the edges so that the wood does not crack. Finally, when inserting or connecting hardware to your decorations, such as eye bolts or small plates with anchor rings, she recommends pre-drilling first to prevent cracking. She said that if you pre-drill a hole slightly smaller than the size of the screw shaft, the screw will be better fixed.

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