Outdoor Christmas decor gives homeowners the opportunity to lend a splash of color to yard landscaping at a time of year when nature has stripped foliage from many trees and plants are taking their customary winter break.

The background canvas of the winter landscape may be enlightened with snow — and that’s a great chance for us to brighten the outside of our houses with colorful lights, seasonal plants and nativity scenes. Halloween decorating brought us the rich browns, yellows and oranges of the autumn that we associate with pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns. Now we can bring back glorious reds and greens into the outdoor decorating palette.

If you like a reminder of the origin of the Christmas story in your home, an outdoor nativity scene is a great way to celebrate the Christian holiday message. There are many different types of nativity figurines that can be arranged to re-create episodes from the story of the birth of Jesus. With models of Mary with the Christ child, Joseph, the three wise men, angels and of course all the animals in the manger, you can make a scene that represents the nativity as you imagine it to have been. You can find life-size figures — even ones that can be illuminated — and at the end of the holiday season you can store them away to be reused the following year.

There are many other ways to decorate outside at Christmas. Many people like to put up festive lights around their homes, either in sparkling white, green or Christmas red, or in a variety of colors that twinkle in the dark. If you have a suitable bush or tree in your yard, you may like to string lights around that too.

But what do you do if you don’t want glitzy outdoor decor but you still want to bring a bit of color to your Christmas yard decorations? Luckily there are plenty of evergreen plants and shrubs that will withstand cold weather — at least for a time — and bring with them fruits and berries to add colorful accents.

Everyone associates holly with Christmas — whether it’s simply a familiar sight from seasonal foliage or as a metaphor for Christ’s crown of thorns. But it’s not the only option you have for using evergreen shrubs in your outdoor Christmas decorations. Check out the possibilities of laurel and boxwood, as well as the well-known branches of spruce, balsam and fir.

And finally, don’t forget that Christmas trees themselves don’t just have to be confined to inside the house! You can bring a bright, festive touch to your yard or garden with a live Christmas tree — either in a pot or planted in the ground — that you can decorate to your liking.