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Juanita Rossiter Special to SaltWire Network

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

It was made of evergreen branches, had a bow, white lights, and was mounted on a wooden frame - and was also extremely large and heavy. After hoisting someone into the air in the bucket of our tractor and using three-inch patio screws to drill it into the barn, the wreath was hung.

I would not recommend doing this. Two years later, it’s still hanging there. Nobody wants to get back into the bucket of the tractor to go up and unscrew it.

Decorating for the holidays is a joy for many people. Securing outside decor, however, can at times be challenging. Winters in Atlantic Canada mean contending with the elements of heavy wind, snow, and rain.

Jacinta MacDonald of Morell, P.E.I., has amassed some helpful tips and tricks to secure outdoor decor in a way that doesn’t break the bank. She buys zip ties at dollar stores because “those things are brutal - nothing will blow away," she says.

She also uses a construction stapler and staples bows down. MacDonald recommends using plastic-backed ribbon, as opposed to woven. Otherwise, once they start to fray you will have nothing left.

MacDonald gets a considerable amount of wind where she lives so she goes heavy-duty at the start so she is not having to collect her decor and reattach it.

MacDonald uses chicken wire in the base of outside planter containers to hold her greenery in place and keep it from blowing out. Then, she puts bricks inside the planters to keep them from blowing away.

MacDonald also suggests using solid wooden items outside rather than plastic or styrofoam. She screws most of her holiday decorations to a post or railing and always staples the ends of bows down. If not, she explains, the wind will fray them instantly if they are flapping.

MacDonald also uses digger irons (or tent pegs) to secure her wooden reindeer in the ground.

With roots in Newfoundland, PEI and Nova Scotia, Kentville, N.S. resident Nancy O’Halloran feels that holiday decorating can be done in a neutral way, regardless of culture or religion, to spread joy and share creativity in what is often an otherwise gloomy time of the year.

A wreath, with the circle having a universal and non-religious meaning of the repeat of eternity, can go a long way in contributing to external holiday decor, she says.

But skip the wreath hanger, she suggests. O’Halloran uses sticky tabs with hooks and pads the back of her wreath with fabric and electrical tape so it will not ruin her home’s siding. She also uses these tabs to hang her exterior wooden signs.

Like MacDonald, O’Halloran likes to use greenery in outdoor holiday decor. One trick O’Halloran uses to weigh down outdoor planters is putting her pots of dead chrysanthemums from her fall decor inside her holiday planters and barrels to use as a base to fill it. She also recommends using sandbags, as well as freezing water inside the planter, to create heaviness.

A medical instructor by day, O’Halloran stresses the necessity of securing all outdoor holiday decor.

“You have to be safe and also think of others. You don’t want decor blowing away and becoming a hazard," she says.

T.D. ("Eddie") Edison is a self-employed carpenter living in St. John’s, NL who says that the impact of wind and frost are always at the top of her mind with everything she builds.

Edison recommends using guy wires or lines to fasten and support exterior decorations from the wind and offers specific instructions on how to do it:

Have attachment points on your holiday decorations that you can easily attach guy wires or lines.

Pre-drill holes in wooden decorations or attach something like eyebolts or similar hardware to your decorations. These can be found in smaller sizes at any hardware store. You can then use that to attach clothesline or other rope or line.

Clothesline is easy to find, relatively inexpensive and easy to work with. It can be found in different weights and colours, from clear to green and even blue. It has a flexible plastic coating on it to protect it from corrosion, making it easy to handle. You can easily make loops and fasten it with simple metal clips made for this purpose.

From natural fibres to nylon and poly blends, choose a rope that is easy to tie and holds knots well. Although it's the cheapest, most propylene ropes are hard to tie secure knots in and tend to be stiff and very slippery.

Use stakes or ground screws and insert them in at least three locations around your decoration to support and stabilize it from wind in all directions. Ground screws that are used to attach dog leads work extremely well and are usually stainless steel, but you can also use wooden stakes if you can drive them into your ground at least one-and-a-half to two feet to achieve a strong enough hold.

Angle stakes or landscape bars or rods away from the decorations so that when you tie a rope or loop a thin wire cable around it, it will not slide off the stake.

Edison further adds that turnbuckles are essential for shortening and tightening guy wires and lines.

She says it can sometimes be awkward getting rope or clothesline tied or looped and attached to a ground stake and your decoration and recommends choosing turnbuckles with a closed eyelet rather than an open hook.

Beware, though - Edison says even secured in three directions, your piece can still shift a bit in high winds and an open hook will disconnect.

And, she adds, if you drill holes in your wooden holiday decorations, be sure to leave plenty of space from the edges so the wood doesn't crack. Finally, when inserting or attaching hardware to your decorations, like an eyebolt or a small plate with an anchor ring, she recommends pre-drilling holes first to prevent splitting. Screws will hold better, she says, if you pre-drill a hole slightly smaller than the size of the screw shaft.

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