One of my best Black Friday finds was completely unintended. I was sent a notice about a flash sale on a front door decoration set for half price with free shipping. Total cost: $51.60. It was perfect for our home. It was a traditional, Colonial style with symmetrical matching trees in small pots, natural Williamsburg-style decorations of pinecones and berries, a door garland and even a battery operated LED wreath.

The set arrived quickly and I set to work putting it up. We generally don’t do a lot of outdoor Christmas decorations so I wasn’t exactly familiar with how this would work. I think we have all seen pictures in magazines of these beautiful garlands draped over doorways but once it arrived and I stood outside holding it in my hands, I realized that I had no idea how to do this.

The first thing I discovered is that the kit I ordered came with only one garland and it wasn’t going to be long enough to surround the door like advertised. Fortunately, I had one extra garland from a set I already owned that I had never quite known what to do with. All the rest in that set I use to wrap around our stair bannister but there was one left over that usually ended up unused or in random places. I lucked out and the two garlands coordinated nicely even though they are made of slightly different materials. The length was just right.

The garland is quite heavy to handle so you can’t just drape it over the door frame and expect it to stay. I knew this was going to require some hardware so I went in the basement to poke around in our tools.

First, I studded the door frame with nails about every 18 inches or so to give the garland something to prevent it from slipping off.

I laid the garland behind the nails and it sort of worked but there were parts of the garland that slipped out from behind the nails, especially along the sides of the door making the garland look loose and unkempt. My first thought was to tie the garland to the nails with some green sewing thread. This did not work at all. The thread was not nearly strong enough to handle the weight. I needed wire.

It came to me that some of the extra garbage bag twist ties we had in the kitchen might suit. So, I tied some of those around the nails.

I wish my twist ties were green and a bit longer but in general this worked great! The garland was nicely secured. I put the trees in place and started connecting all the wires together. When I got to the last tree, I had a small problem. I had a female (plug) end on my garland and only one male (prong) end coming from the remaining tree. I could either connect the tree to the outlet or the garland but not both!

I went to the basement and looked at our collection of extra Christmas lights. All of them had one female end and one male end. There was no combination of lights that was going to work to get the garland and the tree connected to each other and the electrical outlet.

I texted my husband who was on his way to a company Christmas party to stop by the hardware store and bring me home a male/male extension cord that was very short.

He called me right back:

“I’m not sure male/male extension cords exist and even if they do, that would be extremely dangerous to have lying around. What if you made a mistake and plugged both ends into the same outlet!”

Electrical wiring is clearly not my strong suit.

“Are you sure you wired up the garland correctly?”

This was not the question I wanted to hear. That garland took forever to put up and I was not going to take it down. I insisted that my wiring must be right but that I would go outside to check for him. I started with the tree furthest from the outlet.

“OK, this tree has a male plug and it is connected to the garland via . . . . . another male plug,” I said with great disappointment.

“Yeah, you just need to reverse the garland and everything should connect just fine.”

So, back outside I went and took it all down and put it all back up again the other direction. And, of course, it connected perfectly.

Satisfied with my progress, I went inside to put up the garland on our stair railing that we also use to display the holiday cards we receive.

Lights make such a difference in lifting our spirits during the holidays. The only problem is that you have to remember to plug and unplug them every day. Fortunately, I put a technology solution to work for my staircase garland, an indoor light timer. These are a hot item at the hardware stores lately so if you see one and you want one, make sure to grab it. They are inexpensive. A pack of 2 with an indoor and outdoor light timer was about $12.

These timers come with few instructions. I’m sure most people figure them out right away but my lights were on 24-7 for two days while I sorted it out. To spare you the same problem, here are my indoor light timer instructions:

1. Plug the light timer into your outlet (or extension cord).
2. Plug the male end of your lights into the side of the timer.
3. Make sure the switch on the side of the timer is set to “timer on.”
4. There are little gray plastic pins all around the dial on the top of the timer. Pull up all the gray plastic pins during the hours when you DON’T want the lights on. I made a mistake when I first started and pulled up just the pins for the start and stop times. You have to pull up all the pins between those two hours.
5. Rotate the dial to set the timer to the current time. If your lights have not come on even though they are supposed to, you might need to rotated the dial a full turn around first until the lights come on and then set the time.

I have a new appreciation for how much work and frustration must go into every single holiday light display. As I am driving by enjoying someone else’s lights, I will wish them a silent congratulations on a job well done!

Do you have any lighting misadventures to share?