Eric G and John Dudley are diving deep into the festive chaos of holiday decorating, and let me tell you, it’s a wild ride. They kick things off with some golden nuggets of wisdom about electrical safety – because nothing says "Merry Christmas" like blowing a fuse while trying to light up your house like a runway. Seriously, they’ve seen it all, from GFCI outlets hiding in bizarre places to the age-old struggle of untangling Christmas lights that seem to have a vendetta against you.

As they dish out tips on how to avoid turning your home into a fire hazard (because no one wants to roast marshmallows on their living room floor), they also chat about the aesthetics of holiday decor, from tasteful to downright ridiculous. And trust me, they’ve got opinions on inflatable Santas and how not to terrorize the neighbors with your overzealous decorations. So, grab a cup of cocoa, sit back, and get ready for some laughs and a few eye-rolls as we navigate the absurdity of holiday decorating together!

As the holiday season rolls in like a freight train, Eric G and John Dudley dive headfirst into the chaos of holiday decorating, sharing their hard-won wisdom and a few hilarious misadventures. Kicking off the second hour, Eric reveals his secret strategy for when to turn on the Christmas lights—right after Thanksgiving dinner, because why not keep the turkey vibes going just a tad longer? But the real fun begins as they dissect the absurdity of holiday decorations, from the neighbor who goes all Clark Griswold with their light displays to the subtle art of avoiding an electrical disaster while hanging those twinkling bulbs. Eric's expertise shines when he breaks down the essential safety tips that every homeowner should know, like the importance of GFCI outlets and not pinching power cords under the garage door—because nobody wants to set their house on fire while trying to spread holiday cheer. These guys are not just about safety; they’re also all about the aesthetics. Tune in as they discuss finding that perfect balance between classy and crazy in your holiday decor, making sure your house looks like a festive wonderland rather than a haphazard yard sale. As they sprinkle in some laughs—like Eric's cheeky idea of putting a giant inflatable snowman in the front yard (much to his girlfriend's dismay)—you'll find yourself chuckling along while taking notes on how to up your holiday decorating game this season.

Takeaways:

• Getting your Christmas lights up right after Thanksgiving dinner is the way to go; it keeps the holiday spirit rolling without jumping the gun on Christmas.
• Be cautious with those outdoor outlets; GFCI outlets wear out over time, and you don't want to be left in the dark as you try to impress the neighbors.
• Never run extension cords under your garage door, unless you want to win the award for 'Most Likely to Burn Down Your House' during the holidays.
• Consider a theme for your decorations; a cohesive color scheme can elevate your holiday decor from 'meh' to 'whoa, look at that!'.
• Invest in a solid ladder or even a rental lift for holiday decorating; because safety first, and you want to avoid becoming a viral fail video on social media.
• If you're going to use space heaters, for the love of all that is holy, do not plug them into extension cords; your home isn’t a science experiment waiting to happen.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Parkrose Hardware
• Milwaukee

Mentioned in this episode:

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Foreign.

Welcome to around the House with Eric G. Your trusted source for all things home improvement.

Whether you're tackling a DIY project, hiring it out, or just trying to keep your home running smoothly, you're in the right place.

With over 30 years of remodeling experience, certified kitchen designer Eric G takes you behind the scenes with expert advice, industry trends, and the latest innovations for your home.

Home.

It's everything you need to know without the fluff.

Now let's get this show started with our host, Eric G. And John Dudley.

Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for home improvement information.

Thanks for joining us today.

Johnny Dudley and I are sitting here and I'm Eric G. We're sitting here talking Christmas holidays today, kids.

Johnny, my thing is on Thanksgiving, my goal, if I timed everything right, is after dinner is when I turn the lights on.

That's the earliest.

Yeah.

As a crazy guy that I'll do, I'm like, ah, Thanksgiving, its own holiday.

Once dinner's done and we're cleaned up, then I can go flick on the Christmas lights and say, okay, we're good.

No, I like that.

Standard procedure.

That's how it should be.

Yep.

How it should be.

And there's all these decorating tips.

And quite frankly, I.

This is probably the biggest time of year that I get electrical questions is from Christmas back to Thanksgiving.

That's the thing.

Because people are plugging into things and outlets that maybe they haven't used in a year and wondering what went wrong.

Plugging seven things into one outlet.

Yeah.

First off, I want to give you some quick nuggets out there.

If you have a house built probably after the 70s or even 80s, depending on where you're located, those outside outlets have a gfci, which is a ground fault circuit interrupter.

There's a little outlet.

So you see where they have the test and the reset on them.

Keep in mind.

Yeah.

And the red.

Those have a lifespan of about 10 years before they start to wear out and trip early.

That's one issue.

But two.

I'll get two dozen questions and always go like this.

Hey, Eric.

I ended up plugging on my Christmas lights and after having them up for a week or 10 days now, there's no power to the outlet.

What happened?

Man, it is always that GFCI could be the fuse in the first string of lights, but when the outlet's just non existent, that means you clicked that.

And so many people don't understand where that is.

And it could be in funky places.

Many times in newer homes Brother, it's right behind Murphy's losses, behind the refrigerator in the garage, which to be honest, that outlet's not really even designed to plug a refrigerator into it.

But that's usually that one that's high that people plug into because there's a handful of outlets in the garage.

Now, my last house was goofy.

The backyard GFCI outlet was in the front powder room.

Wow.

Okay.

So when I first moved into the house, I was running a table saw, I think, and a chop saw or something out there off of and clicked it.

It was old and tired.

I spent like a half hour going around looking for it.

I'm like, oh, it can't be in that other side of the house.

Wow.

It was up there.

It was the last one I checked.

I better check that front bathroom.

Just sure enough, there it was.

Thanks a lot, Mr. Larkin.

Yeah, it was just like, are you kidding me?

And so that's the thing you're into.

And it's funny, but where is that GFCI outlet?

And it's.

And if it's a decade older, might be smart just to throw another one in it.

And the other issue with newer homes is you've got the arc fault stuff.

And the arc fault stuff really sets off.

Those are those new breakers, Johnny, since you've left here that have been common.

And man, electric motors, especially the early ones of those, you turn on a table saw, you turn on something there.

Those things love to just go boom and click off.

So that's the first place on that.

And the second tip I want to give you, we have more in the show to give you.

But the second one I just want to give out there is never ever run that power cord underneath the garage door where you're pinching it.

Then everybody does it.

And I remember when I was in my 20s, one of my dad's good friends ended up having his three car garage with his hot rods in it.

He burnt the thing down because he ran the Christmas lights underneath it.

And it just kept karate chopping it broke down the cord, whatever the extension cord was underneath it.

It just couldn't take the pressure of that hitting it every time on the concrete.

Sure enough, shorted it, Boom.

Burnt the garage down in the house.

Lost three cars that weren't insured because they were in for the holidays.

So just be really careful with that stuff.

And the same goes for using that little screw in to plug into a light fixture outside to it.

Have the electrician come over.

And my biggest tip on this is when you have the electrician coming over for the next remodel, you're adding a generator or whatever.

Just have them throw another 20amp circuit up in the soffit or eaves.

So you could plug it in and then you could run a timer off of that whatever and you're good to go.

Makes it so simple.

Yeah, it's just a smart idea.

You'll use it every time.

Every time.

Heck, you could be on the roof doing some work up there and you got a plug in right underneath.

That's what I'm saying.

You'll use it.

You'll use it for things in the yard, you'll use it on the roof, you use it for the lights.

It's just 20amp never hurts.

A great thing to have and it's just handy.

And nowadays too you can get those plugs that work really well that they just plug in and they're oh like a 12 inch cord but they have the Lutron super waterproof basically remote outlet in it.

So it plugs in, you hook it up into your Lutron system on the phone and basically it's a smart switch.

So you can literally jump on your Lutron app and click on there and go boom.

Okay, I want this to turn on 45 minutes before sunset and I want it to turn off at 2 in the morning.

Or if you want to get up when you're going to work in the dark and have your Christmas lights on, have it come on 15 minutes up after sunrise and you have running all light.

So it's a cool way to go and it saves you electricity and you don't have some sketchy timer in a plastic bag that shouldn't be outside anyway trying to make it work.

Who would do that?

You and me.

I guarantee you and I have both done that.

I've done it more than twice.

More than twice.

Absolutely, absolutely.

So those are some of the big ones just right off the bat that just on the safety side we're going to talk a lot about decorating stuff, which I know Johnny isn't your cup of tea, but I want to hear your comments on some of this stuff because it's always colorful.

You're not the decorator.

I like lights, but the decorations, eh, not so much.

I was joking.

We were at.

Oh, we were at.

My friend, my friend.

I have a great relationship here in Portland with my friends over at Park Rose Hardware.

Those guys, we get along great.

I love their tool rental but they had that 20 foot blow up snowman in there for sale for a few hundred bucks and I was in there with my girlfriend.

I looked over at her, I went, you know what we could do?

You think we'd make the HOA mad if we put that in the front yard?

She just, we got to get out of here.

She did not want me messing with the HOA on that one, but I thought that would be fun.

Here's my experiences with the decoration portion.

I'm the guy that either steals or stabs that snowman.

Okay.

You're not 17 anymore or 27.

I'm the guy that went running out of the shopping mall with the giant wicker reindeer and shoved in my buddy Mark's car when I was 15.

Yeah, I like decorations.

Yeah, I get that.

I get that derelict.

I love it.

Yeah, Somebody had to.

They were just sitting there all alone.

Poor kids.

Poor kids.

Exactly.

Here's the thing what I say, and we see this, especially when it comes to outside.

I love the people that go just absolutely bat crazy on outside decorations.

My buddy, Scotty Hammond, I think you've met him once or twice before.

He lives down in California.

His neighbor across the street is the guy that you'll see probably on this season's, like on Christmas Eve, they run the on like abc.

It's like the best Christmas light display in the country.

And whoever wins $50,000, I think you'll be on this year's.

But you can't see the house.

There's probably 30,000 decorations in the front.

Wow, there's those people.

And thank God to LED lights because a lot of those guys were putting in three phase electric just to run their Christmas light display.

And having 600amp panels before, now they've got it where, you know, they can at least dial it back a bit with LEDs.

But I appreciate those people that in September start putting their Christmas display up because it takes them three months to do it.

And they're fun.

A lot of those folks too, right?

It's like.

It's like an amusement park.

Like, they want people to come right around the yard, check it all out.

Like, I used to love that when I was a kid, man.

Absolutely.

Hey, we're gonna have to go out to break, brother.

When we do, let's go back and continue this discussion with this and how to plan for that.

We'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

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What's up?

This is Sticks it in ya and.

Satchel from Steel Panther.

And you are listening to around the House with Eric G. Yeah, we love Eric G. And you should too.

Welcome back to the around the House show, your trusted source for home improvement information.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Eric G. I've been sitting here talking to Johnny about this reindeer theft that we uncovered here of retail stuff that HS brought and I had to look it up, brother.

In Santa Clara, California, where this happened.

Good news, looking at AI misdemeanor retail theft.

Now, this isn't a live reindeer, so let's go into this.

Statute of limitations is one year.

So you're good.

Okay.

Now if that was felony theft, I don't think you had a thousand dollars worth of wicker reindeers under your arm.

Let's be honest, no.

Only two.

So for Dancer and Prancer, that's only three years.

But if reindeer I think were involved, it probably would have five or six of Rudolph, for instance.

But I think with those two, you're good.

So, yeah, it's been 30 years.

40 years.

So I think you're low level reindeer.

Low level reindeer theft, Exactly.

Oh, I feel much better.

I'll sleep better, I'm sure.

See, there we go.

For 40 years.

All right, so back to decorating.

I like you.

I loved my parents jumping in the station wagon, driving around and taking a look at those homes or where the people just went absolutely crazy.

And it's fun.

It's very much National Lampoon's Christmas vacation.

Totally.

And a little trip, trip trick and tip.

Let me say that correctly for this.

If you're up on the ladder trying to recreate the Christmas vacation, get that lock up, lockjaw ladder grip so you can tie it to the ladder.

Doesn't go backwards.

And that way you don't send things through the neighbor's window and all that other stuff, you're good to go.

Although there's some excitement to be had.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's funny too.

Now there's people that can get those low end, like FM signal, like you see for realtors, where you drive by and you could actually listen to the description.

I see people now.

You drive by, Please tune to 88.2 or whatever and you can listen to whatever they had set at.

You can listen to Christmas music when you drive by their house.

Wow, that's good for 100ft.

Work a little bit.

Yeah, it gets pretty crazy.

I like it, though.

It's one of those things.

But no, it's spirited, man.

It makes it a happy holiday.

It's fun.

See, I am the old school decorator.

I'm the one that outside, I don't like the icicle lights as much, but I do the old, like, C7, C9 bulbs that look like they're incandescents.

So do I, because that's what my grandma and grandpa had.

So that was always Christmas to me.

Yeah.

And if you steal a few of them, they make a really loud pop in the street when you throw them high up in the air.

Yeah.

And the other thing with that is.

Yeah, so you've heard.

Allegedly.

So when those were incandescent bulbs.

Nowadays they've got them in the plastic.

So they're LEDs, and so you're not.

I mean, they made a good snow melt on the ice.

They did.

They did knock out the ice in the gutters pretty quickly because they put on enough heat.

Oh, yeah, dude.

Yeah.

You had to wear gloves or you'd burn the crap out of your hand.

Getting absolutely up there putting up oven gloves.

And one of my tricks too, on that, by the way, guys, is LEDs.

You can put a lot together.

But my secret here is I like buying the big rolls.

You can buy those rolls of 250ft at the store now instead of having to plug them in.

But here's the problem.

I have had some serious issues with those things lasting more than just a couple years.

These days you buy them and, man, if I get more than two years out of them.

And now the crazy thing is, though, I see people out there that are putting these up and leaving them up all year round.

Yeah.

And that is lamp cord that is not designed to be out there more than a couple cold months.

Even in California, if it's summertime still and it feels like it is still 70, 80 degrees, it's meant for 30, 45 days out there.

Yeah.

There's no way that even the sun is damaging.

Yeah, the sun's doing damage to those things.

They are fragile.

They're built cheap.

They are.

I don't care if you're buying a GE brand or you're buying the off brand.

And even just the way you wrap them up and roll them up and you beat them, you're breaking one wire loose and then the next wire loose, and it's all interior.

You don't see it.

You think they should be Fine.

But for some reason the lights stop.

Mid cord.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Broke something.

It broke something.

And then that connection could start coming back together.

Maybe there's a strand or two there.

And all of a sudden you got a heat source.

And now you can have a problem.

Wiggle it.

Yeah, you wiggle it.

Then you cut it open.

Then you electrical tape it.

Then you wrap it in a plastic bag and leave it out in the snow.

Leave it out in the side.

Yeah.

And then one wire is shorter than the other ones.

So it's all a little wonky, you know, it just never works.

Never works.

Those are throwaways, guys.

And I've only seen that stuff on movies.

I don't know.

Yeah, but that's how it goes.

It's.

And so anyway, I've gotten to the point now that I don't buy the expensive ones, at least in my experience.

I just buy the reasonably priced ones at the home centers.

Yeah.

And to me, the worst ones are like on Amazon because they'll sit there and say they got a UL stamp on it.

But I just about guarantee that a lot of those don't.

Aren't UL listed.

Just the Chinese manufacturers putting a UL stamp on it going, yep, they're good to go.

And they're probably not.

So be careful with where you get those sourced.

And don't leave them up all year round.

Cause then they're just throwaways.

They're not designed to be up there a year, period.

Yeah.

And pack them away carefully.

That's my issue.

Right.

I'm like, I'm done with these and I shove them all in one bag and then I drag them out the next year and they're all caught.

Tangled with each other.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

For some reason they don't work.

And plug them in before you get up on the 30 foot extension ladder.

Plug them in, test them, make sure they work, move them around, make sure you don't have any of those loose connections.

That's a big one there.

And the other thing I do is.

This is what I do is I actually duct tape on the inside, put them in totes, Right.

You buy them, you got all the extra pieces and parts.

I rip those off and I know the tote it's going into and I duct tape a plastic bag on the inside, like a Ziploc, and I throw them all in there and zip them up.

Because otherwise they're kicking around the garage, the shop.

During the toolbox, what Christmas light set did this little tiny fuse that's the size of A grain of rice.

Go to.

Yeah, that's some Smart thinking there, Mr. Goranson.

I know.

I think it's.

I've thrown enough away going, I know where this fuse is.

I don't know what it is.

And trying to come up with a better way to do it.

Yeah.

And it works.

Makes sense.

And it works.

So the next thing here, too, guys, is when you're decorating and you're just trying to do something classy and cool.

Spend the time and come up with a theme.

Try to come up with something that's going to tie in inside, outside.

If you like white and blue, to white and blue.

If you like colors, do that.

But make those play together.

It's going to give you a better overall look.

If you want the classic look.

But sometimes the eclectic.

You can tell how people's last 10 years of purchases have gone by the age of the stuff that's out in the lawn because you get the stupid plastic cleanup thing that's 10 years old, that's maybe on its last leg to the new video thing that's on the front garage door.

It can look a little haphazard at times.

I think that slowly happens as the children age.

Right.

Like, yeah, they're three and you buy all this new stuff, and then they're five and it's still cool.

And then they're seven.

They're like, we don't really care.

Yeah.

So absolutely.

Then the parents.

A little shaggy and Santa's losing some hair.

Yep.

And I'm sorry, I love the Christmas nativity in the front yard, but the chance of somebody snagging that and doing something bad with it is probably high these days in most areas.

Yeah.

It's a shame.

We could joke about messing with reindeer, but let's leave that one alone.

Let's leave the religion.

Yeah, yeah.

There's bad.

We all gotta have our boundaries there.

Let's not do that.

Let's not steal a couple reindeer, bust a couple of lights in the street.

That's one thing.

But don't mess with the manger.

Yeah.

Just leave it alone.

Leave it alone.

They had enough hard time.

They couldn't even get the end that night.

So actually, I'm going to tell the story when I come back because it was the funniest thing I saw on YouTube here last week, actually.

It was on Instagram.

And it was a kid making a snowman and he was mad about a truck going up and driving across his lawn and taking his snowman out every day.

So he got the ultimate laugh.

We'll talk about that just a second.

Soon as around the House returns.

Welcome back to the around the House show.

Your trusted source for home improvement information, I'm Eric G. And we got John Dudley sitting here.

We were just talking about Christmas decorating since, you know, after Thanksgiving is full.

Full on season for me.

But I was just telling a story when I went out to break about this kid that had the ultimate laugh for a guy that was driving his truck up in the snow and running over his snowman in the front yard.

The kid just moved it a little bit towards the street.

He went over where the fire hydrant was and built the snowman around it.

And this dude comes through there and it was on camera with his Suburban and hits it at about 20 miles an hour.

It hits the fire hydrant.

Now, kids, this was gorgeous.

Now here's the thing.

I don't want the fire department have to be poking around everybody's snowman looking for the fire hydrant when your house is burning down because dad didn't do the Christmas lights.

Right.

But I like your point of this kind of funny.

I'll give you.

I'll give you a solid 10 for form on that.

For sure.

Yeah, No, I said, I said put a big rock in the base.

But fire hydrant is definitely.

He one upped me there.

You got me.

That was solid.

I was like, oh.

And it, you know, and it just broke it over.

Lifted the front of the truck up and it was low, freezing, and the water was spraying everywhere, all up underneath, which means that's going to be one big ice bomb.

And now it looked like it was stuck up on it.

So now you got to call the authorities and the water department and the fire department and everybody else.

And you're looking like the.

The animal sitting there running over kids.

Snowman.

It hit the fire hydrant, so way to go, jackass.

In a truck, I'd have put a can of red paint in the head as well.

Been good, right?

I like that big old can of red paint.

Saran Wrap over the top of it so you make sure it doesn't hit the can wrong.

Repaint his.

Repaint his hood for him and wash his undercarriage.

Oh, you're marked.

You're marked.

I like it.

I like it.

That's a good one.

So here's the thing, guys, too be really careful around this time of year with candles.

You know, candles are interesting.

I love them in the windows, but, man, there are some good LED options out there for that.

So you don't burn the house down.

It's always a concern of mine.

You know, my amazing girlfriend loves candles.

Just candles every night.

But I tell you what, there is also an indoor air quality issue with them because you can see what they call ghosting on the studs if you have too many candles going, Especially with a nice, tight house, you'll see every stud in the wall because that temperature difference will grab that and the soot stays there.

So you'll be doing a lot more cleaning and things like that this time of year if you've got a nice tight house.

So it's a big deal.

Be careful.

And then the other thing I just want to mention too, because we see this a lot with space heaters.

People trying to plug the space heaters into electrical cords.

In the wintertime, way too many office buildings and houses burned down, especially in attic areas where they've got, you know, bedroom up there, not enough insulation.

Somebody plugs in two lamp cords into the space heater and they burn the place down.

So not to be negative here, let's just be a little common knowledge on this stuff.

And don't use extension cords with space heaters and plug them into the outlet and not into something else.

We've all done it, but let's not play.

Yeah, that's why I'm being quiet over here.

Yep, guilty as charged.

Now here's the thing, too.

I'm.

I'm excited for this Christmas for me because I get to go out and do a natural tree.

My previous administration will say was not a natural tree person because one of her kids was allergic and we couldn't do that.

I get it.

I respect that.

But I'm gonna go out and do the.

The natural cutting tree, which is fun.

Now I'm gonna cheat a little bit because I'm gonna take my Milwaukee Sawzall with the battery and the tree cutting blade on it.

Oh, man.

So I'm not laying down in the mud cutting.

I can just reach down.

The fun out of it.

You're supposed to come home muddy and wet and freezing.

You know, a couple of cuts on your hand from using the handsaw.

Dude, I got a torn rotator cuff on my left shoulder.

Ah, yeah.

Okay.

I gotta play it a little safe this year, but you know what I mean?

I mean, that's.

That, to me, is fun.

I'd much rather do that than go down to my home center and grab something off.

The trees have been cut two months ago that are sitting in their.

In their outdoor service area there.

No, it's way cooler.

Making a day out of it and going out there.

Yeah.

Getting in the nature and actually hacking the thing.

Yeah.

I mean, you go up in the woods and do it and get your.

Your forestry permit to do it that way around my neighborhood here I can go within 10 minutes and there's probably three Christmas tree farms, which is kind of cool.

So I can go out there, earned it, you know.

Right.

Like catching a fish.

Yeah, it's way cool.

And you know how fresh it is because you're the one that cut it.

Some of that other stuff was cut, you know, weeks ago.

I'm already seeing Christmas stands get set up here and it's not Thanksgiving yet.

And it's like, okay.

By the time those things show up there and it's supposed to last through, you know, you got trees that are supposed to last two months.

You can't throw enough water at those to make that last in most areas.

Fire hazards.

Okay.

Johnny, how many times you lit a Christmas tree on fire after it's out of the house and when it's out back?

Been sitting outside your house for four months.

Oh, lots.

Yeah.

It really shows you how those things look.

Right when they get going.

Yeah.

They go up quick.

Yeah.

I mean, you throw that in your.

If you make the mistake and march and throw it out in your fire pit out back where you roast marshmallows with the kids.

Throw it out there for a minute.

Who.

You could have 25 or 30 foot high flames coming off that torch.

Yeah.

It's bonfire city, man.

Yeah, it's awesome.

I used to start bonfires.

Yeah, they're great.

Yeah.

I'll tell you what, I do have one quick story I'll tell.

I had to.

I was in high school, so this was all good, but the church group that I was helping out with that my parents had me going to to become a better person, ended up wanting a bonfire.

How big can I make it?

Well, make it worthwhile.

Make it big.

So I knew some guys that had a warehouse and they had a, like a semi truck full of extra pallets that they were trying to get rid of.

So I had to come over there.

So we had a pallet fire.

We had that thing stacked up.

They come out there and go, wow, that's big.

Like.

Yeah.

I had probably a semi truck and a half of pallets out there.

I mean, it was 16ft high.

So what did I do?

I.

As a kid, not really thinking.

I had gasoline poured around the outside of that and inside of it.

And had an old Christmas tree that I got in for my buddy's backyard from his house out there, lit that thing on fire.

And the fire department in the next town across the river reported the fire up on the hill.

Oh, man.

Nice.

So kind of got in a little trouble.

I think they gave the church a hall pass on that one, but I don't think there was a fine.

But they never let me do bonfires again because I built it correctly.

Luckily, you were with the church, not ten dudes drinking Budweiser.

Yeah, Heidelberg would have been a different story for sure.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

But anyway, not to digress here, these are things we ought to be a little careful with.

But to circle back around inside, sometimes adding those natural touches like that tree or pine cones or some of that stuff, you know, be a little careful with the garland on the stairs because if Grandma and your aunt want to go upstairs over the holidays and check out upstairs, those can kind of hinder their movement.

When you've got it wrapped around the banister, maybe keep it along the bottom of it.

So it's not as much of a safety issue.

You're not taking Grandma or Grandpa out coming up and down the stairs.

But be a little thoughtful with that.

And to me, depending on your climate, be very careful with the wreath on the front door.

Because if you're in a warmer climate, I've had wasp nests getting those things.

And you open the door, they're coming into your house.

So be a tad bit careful with that.

So over here in my neck of the woods, it's always so wet.

That's not a chance.

And it's cold, so it's not really an issue.

But other parts of the country, I've heard that can be an issue.

So be a little careful with that.

Never met a wasp wreath.

Yeah, same.

But I've had.

I've had it come at Eastern Washington.

I did have that happen one time to me, where they were living in it and it was just warm enough, got out and I was like, oof, not good.

So now, one way to keep the family away.

You know, you got an option there.

You got an option there.

That actually isn't a bad way to go.

Except then they're coming into my house.

So then I gotta go chase them around inside the house and they're.

And it's warm.

So now they're kind of got a little extra skip in Their step.

So when we come back, I want to talk about some of the cool things you can do outside these days and some tricks and tips there.

We'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

Don't change that dial.

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We'll be right back after we pay some bills.

Welcome back to the around the House show.

Your trusted source from Home Improvement Information, I'm Eric G. And we got Johnny D. And I have been sitting here talking about Christmas decorating, holiday decorating.

I'm sorry, I'm very much the walk through the, the grocery store line and say, merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, whatever it is to people versus the happy Holidays.

I think I'm just scarred from the happy holidays thing.

Johnny, you know you can't say this.

No, man, whatever your jam is, I respect it.

But I don't play the, yeah, I don't play the holidays game much on that.

I just don't like it.

I legit never understood like, how somebody could be offended or bothered by me saying Merry Christmas.

Like, how is what?

Like, yeah, are you that sensitive?

How do you put your shoes on in the morning?

Yeah, yeah, man.

I agree, I agree.

It's like, hey, if Hanukkah is your jam, awesome.

A lot of my Jewish friends, they have Christmas trees too because they're trying to get the best of all worlds there, you know?

Yeah.

I mean, honestly, I, I can't imagine anybody saying, you know, happy Hanukkah to me and me being like, how dare.

Like, it's like cluster, Come on, you know, so silly.

Humans, humans, people wishing you well.

Take it, enjoy it.

Be happy.

They did.

All right, rant over.

Let's get back to the Christmas stuff here and the holiday stuff.

But you know, the thing is, is when you're decorating, there's so many cool things out there.

You know, I was just showing between the segments here on the commercial break, I was just showing John Johnny here the, the new kind of snap over polyester covers you can put over your garage door now.

And it's so cool.

You used to have to do that projector, but the projector didn't work exactly.

It kind of looked, wasn't Powerful enough, kind of faded and, and from my age, it reminded me of the bulb that was burning out on the projector in high school when they were trying to put the thing on in class before they had TVs in school, but just didn't go well.

But they've got some really cool stuff out there.

The, the blow up toys out there where you got the big Santas and the big reindeers and stuff.

Those are cool.

They get obnoxious when it's windy, so you kind of need to think about your climate with those because if you got the wind, they start jumping around and bouncing off the neighbor's cars and all that other stuff.

And that's not good.

But to me, interior design, exterior design, even with the holidays, is always about kind of balance and scale and creating focal points no matter what you're doing out there.

You know, if you're going to have the biggest manger set out there, awesome, that's your focal point.

But you can have too much junk outside and it looks just kind of haphazard versus something that people go by and go, wow, tastefully done.

Yeah.

And I'm a, I'm a crossover depending on the year.

Right.

Like some years I like just the potpourri of just, you know, more traditional.

Yeah.

Standard, like my grandparents did it.

And then other years I get all, you know, modern minimalist with it.

Like all white lights and, you know, red accent or blue accent or something, you know?

Absolutely.

Now I get that.

And I like them both.

I love that.

Like Nordstrom's.

Very neat, very pristine appeal.

Yep, absolutely.

But I also like the white trash.

You know, wrap the mobile home in a bunch of crazy whatever and call it Christmas.

Like, I could go both ways on those.

Yeah, the, the.

I'm gonna.

Since we're on the radio, I'm gonna say it this way.

Like Christmas vacation.

The bathroom's full as he's draining the septic out of the, out of the motorhome into the storm drain in the street.

Right.

A little more of that Griswold versus the Clark Griswold.

But you know, it's.

It's all good.

You know, it's all good.

But really, guys, ladder safety on this stuff.

Be careful.

And again, lighting is cool, but strategically placed lighting is awesome, too.

I mean, the other thing is if you do this right, you can almost count it as an extra layer of security lights out there because you're lighting up those darker spaces in the lawn.

If you don't have outside lighting.

Makes it harder to steal the Bulbs.

It does when they're leds, man.

I tell you what, now you got to throw the special tool and unsnap it.

Or.

Or maybe they're even just not replaceable ones.

But have some fun.

And safety is the key here.

One of the best things if you're looking for a present for your spouse that does the Christmas slates out there is get a just really nice solid ladder.

And I'm also Johnny, the guy that goes down to my hardware store that has tool rental and I've done this a couple times.

Park Rose Hardware is my guys down here that I use.

But I go down to their tool rental and they got a really cool skylift.

For a couple hundred bucks, I can rent that and not have to get on the ladder.

I can back it up in the trailer, put the forearms down, lift it up, you know, and it's got the alien look and you can jump on the basket and it makes it so easy when those things have a 40 pound reach, I mean a 40 foot reach, to get out there and do the whole front of the house and not have to move it and then take it back.

And you look like a rock star in your neighborhood as well.

I was just gonna say you're going full luxury now.

Now you're talking about like, dude, I'd.

Much rather do business life.

Yeah, okay.

It's a little bougie, but I tell you what, it's a little.

A little bougie.

A little.

Yeah, yeah.

And now on the edge of the.

Roof and lean over.

Done that too.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't like playing Superman up there.

When you got a 912 pitch though, and you're leaning head first down, that's not a comfortable feeling to me.

Whatever it takes to justify your sky lift, I think you're over the top with that one.

All right, Heckle fish.

I get it.

Bringing in GLGs.

Absolutely.

But you know, it does work though.

It does work.

And it's one of those things that I really enjoy because it's fun to get up there.

Your neighbor's drive by and go, what the heck is he doing there?

And then the Christmas lights are up in like 20 minutes.

Takes you longer to set it up than it does to get up there and do it.

But.

But then here's my reckless part.

I'm the guy too that makes sure I tape the things together.

So when I want to pull them down, I just grab and yank them down off the.

And let the gutter clips fly with it and they come down way Easier than they go up.

Yeah.

Great.

There are some clips out there, guys, and I've tried these and they don't work.

They don't.

There are these clips that you can put on like an end of a pole, like a, like a painter's pole, for instance.

You can get pretty tall, one of those, and then they clip into the clip and you can actually put them on there.

It doesn't work.

Sounds like it doesn't work.

Yeah, I mean, you're 16ft up, you're trying to set stuff up and trying to click clips onto a gutter.

It just doesn't work.

So either a ladder or it's everything else or a lift.

Go back to the high lift.

But just make sure you share it with like four other neighbors.

How about that?

There you go.

That's not a bad way to go.

Good.

Yeah.

If you spend four other neighbors.

Yeah, Y' all pick a Sunday and then, you know.

Yeah.

Now the last thing that I love to do, and this is something I did with my kids years ago, and this might be a good one if you live anywhere close to the mountains within an hour or two.

I got up with my daughter probably a decade ago with my neighbor, jumped in our trucks and drove all the way up to Mount Hood from us, which is like an hour and a half.

Went up there into a ski resort parking lot that was closed and shoveled in all the snow we can end up getting.

The back of our trucks came down and piled it in our front yard.

Now, we didn't have any snow.

You know, it's 45 degrees like it is in Portland in the wintertime.

We didn't have any snow.

But when you have a four foot high pile of snow in your yard and you get a neighborhood Christmas Day snowball fight.

Nice.

It was the popular thing in town.

Now the funny thing is, years later, I go back on Google Maps to find my house and there's a two foot pile of snow on Google where the car had driven by.

And I'm like, there's the snow pile.

That's awesome.

Oh, that's awesome.

Super cool.

And man, you're having another party out there.

I love it, dude.

Bunch of fireworks.

My dogs are going crazy.

Luckily, our time is just about up.

I apologize.

It's live radio and it's real here.

It is, it is, it is.

And we don't take that stuff out because it's just reality of life.

So I love it.

Sterile.

No, it's all good.

It's all good.

That's why we do it this way.

We do it this way because we're having fun.

And, and guys, you know, now I just want to say this as we go out here for the last segment of the show.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Be kind to your neighbor.

Pray for patience with your family.

They're going to push your buttons, you're going to push theirs.

The bigger the family, the more the.

The more the potpourri of, of things they want to talk about.

You know, jabs being taken.

Absolutely.

And like I said in the first segment, invite those friends over for Thanksgiving.

Enjoy the holiday season.

This is what it's all about.

And I think with all that's going on in the world out there, if we could just be a little more loving to our neighbor, no matter what they believe in, no matter their political stance, let's put that side away over the holidays and just be good humans to each other.

And I think we're going to be all in a better spot.

Sure.

Be nice.

Let's do that.

Let's do it.

All right, Johnny, good to talk today, buddy.

I mean, this is awesome having you on for the holiday show like this and talking Thanksgiving.

Talking a little turkey and a little Christmas decorating.

Love it, brother.

Always a great time, man.

Good to see you.

I'm Eric G for Johnny Dudley here.

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