Melvie, we use all the same things you mentioned with fake snow!
Vickie in Texas

They use all the same stuff here in Australia, too - which is really weird cuz Christmas is in SUMMER! And I hate it. Christmas should not happen in summer. It stinks. I complain about this every year... ROFLMHO!!

But they do depict Santa in a tank top and swimming trunks on the beach a lot.

LOL......so funny this topic came up. Sometimes I'd decorate with snowmen and snowflakes, fake snow on the windows. Fake snow on the tree inside. But the last few years I switched to what I considered more appropriate... Magnolias, Grapevine, and Birds and Bird nests. It's not very Christmas like decorating your tree while wearing tank tops and shorts, hard to get in the Christmas mood!

Here is a link that might be useful: Kudzu's Blog

White Christmas is for the whole world. So we use snowman, santa's. I am originally from Watertown NY, don't miss it but cold is cold. LOL

Southeast Louisiana here. Yes indeed. I decorate with snowflakes and snowmen each year. Sometimes it actually does get cold here for Christmas. But, Christmas is Majic.

So enjoy and put out your good stuff with icicles and snowmen for Santa to see when he arrives.

They have a cute sign downhere with snowmen. the sign says
LET IT SNOW,,,
SOMEPLACE ELSE!

I decorate with silk leaves in the fall and plastic or resin pumpkins and squash.
I have a Christmas village and use the poly Fluff for snow then add some of the flakes.
I have a Palm tree that is lit up But I dont add lights to my Outdoor Palms as its difficult taking them down.OWCH!I have decorated seashells for ornaments and have Santas and Snowmen in Beach attire also made angels fron seashells. Mostly though my tree if FULL of Raggedy Annes and Andies,My outside,I just put a 40 inch wreath with Huge Red Bells and LED lights on the the front of the house,That thing lights the whole outdoors. And Giant cut out gingerbread men that my son made from Plywood and I painted.
People have started using those inflatables but I personally think we waste enough electric.
When I first moved here I was homesick for snow at Christmas then i got a card from a Pastor we knew.It had Mary and Joseph on a donkey and there were Palm trees in the background! I never missed the stuff again!

HI Melvie,

Well, I'm in Southern California, high desert area. I always laugh because it's generally only summer and winter here. It seems that we only get about a couple weeks worth of spring and fall. I generally have harvest things up until just after Thanksgiving then decorate for Christmas. I put light trees in my front yard and fake poinsettias in my terra cotta pots (becuase my periennials are cut back to the soil.) I personally don't decorate with snowballs, snowmen or icicles. WE may get a dusting of snow that lasts maybe a day or two. I generally clean up all the Christmas deco around the first of the year. And yup, it's bare! But by January I'm already anticipating spring and everythign coming back green (even though it doesn't until at least late February. My hubby and I have 20 acres of just land up in the hills (Caliente, CA) where there are pines, oaks, junipers, yucca, and outcroppings of granite with lichen. That land is four seasons. So maybe when we retire and Lord willing, move there then I can find out. Oh, and sometimes out here you'll find someone making a snowman on their lawn out of tumbleweeds! (I hate Russian thistle!) As for gifts I personally like items that are an all year round item or something that is versatile. I don't know if I've helped or not. Hopefully so! :-)

Love, Jules

South/West Tenn here. I am originally from Michigan and lived in the U P for 12 years and I loved decorating with the artifical trees, plastic santas, snowmen, dancing reindeer etc. When it snowed....it snowed and all our decorations would be buried in snow what a bummer. We would go dig them out several times before christmas. Here in Tennessee we get very little to no snow and this suits us just fine. Now we can see the christmas decorations all holiday season and when it's time to put them away they aren't buried under a couple feet of snow or frozen to the ground. Can't get any better then that!!

Melvie,

Here in North Texas we do decorate for Christmas using all of those items. After Christmas for the remainder of the winter it is not common to use these items for decor. But I can understand how appropriate it would be in an area with continued ice and snow!! It must be beautiful.

Susie

My only experience with being in a mild climate at Christmas time was when hubby, kids & I lived in San Diego CA in the 1970's. I could make my apartment look all Christmasy, the problem for me was to look out my window and see palm trees, green grass, everything still growing just fine.

Solution ... try not to look outside LOL. It just wasn't the same as places where the seasons change more severely, but kids were small & we made the best of it. There are certainly good things to be said for a wonderful climate too, but I surely did miss the seasons changing. I love them all, but I've never had to put up with much snow, just enough to enjoy, then the next day it's usually gone around here. ~tenderlee

I was curious, too. Always lived in NH. But hey I have flamingos why can't you guys have snowmen?
kathy

I don't personally have any snowmen, but a lot of people here (N. Texas) fill their yards up with snowmen, reindeer, icicles, you name it.

I just put lights on the house and a giant lighted wreath. We used to have a christmas inflatable Snoopy, but it got stolen one christmas eve!

I live in North Carolina but in the past I have lived in Florida, Pennsylvania,New York and Canada. I love the cold snowy Christmas's but Christmas in NC is still much better than Fl because it is at least cold enough to wear a sweater on Christmas day (well, maybe). I would use snow anywhere! Thank goodness Christmas doesn't have any of those special rules like not wearing white after this date or that! Christmas can be whatever your imagination wants! That is what makes it Christmas.

I'm in So. Ca. & our winters are colder than used to be, I have to wrap my orange tree with doubled over king size sheets so oranges don't get "white" & tasteless! My neighbor goes all out & has stars on roof, Santa & reindeer,all sorts of stuff. We have a few streets around that are fantastic, every house decorates & they have everything that can be bought & some that are made by homeowner. It's great fun to drive through them. It got down to freezing at least a doz. times last yr but then gets up in 50's or higher during day.Had a BarBQ 1 Christmas day!! I've worn winter coat xmas eve & t top others, never know what to expect.

Hi Melvie,
long time lurker myself. Here in LA ( lower Alabama ) we use fake snow,inflatables,let is snow signs,anything and everything to fool ourselves into believing we are having a white christmas..lol !

Katishooked, my son is living in Watertown N.Y. right now. He's military and stationed at Ft.Drum. He called me last week and they had gotten some snow... boy, am I so jealous !

Hi all, Thanks for the followups!! I wasn't exactly sure what the southerners do when decorating during winter (or christmas in the summer in australia!) I've never traveled for the holidays so south central PA is all I know for Christmas and that chilly, snowy, blowy time until spring! Its neat to hear about the differences and similarities in decorating. I like having the change in weather myself but after the first snowfall I'm over it and envy all those in the sunny south!!! Does that make me fickle????!!!
Melvie the Fairweather Four Season Garden Junker

Thanks for sharing, everyone! It's interesting to learn of your Christmas' celebrations. My front yard looks like this pic below...the stuff is real...sometimes TOO REAL for TOO LONG! I live near Cedar Falls, Iowa. Remember visiting my folks a couple times in Texas (winter Texans) and it always looked so festive around there...altho' I loved seeing and breathing "green!" Like concreteprimroses said, she has "flamingo's...
Jeanne S.

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Thanks for the pic, Jeanne! Nothing more beautiful outside than new fallen snow!! Thanks everybody for sharing your xmas climates!!This has been fun!! Oh, Melvie, you did a great job of covering yourself on the ss bit!! Nice work, even included Cait! Jan

I love everyone's ideas for Christmas. Christmas is Christmas no matter where you are... I can totally relate to Christmas decorations being buried in snow. Last year, here in the Pacific Northwest, we had one of the top record breaking snowfalls in history. Bart, my chainsaw carved bear, had to be dug out of the snow!

Here is Bart during a regular snowfall Christmas season...

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Here is Bart last year during our record breaking season. (I missed a week of school as an elementary teacher because the snow kept coming and coming and coming...)

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I still love our four seasons here though. Happy holidays! Bear Hugs! Kirk

Wow, kirkus, I loooove your photos! Snow-covered Bart is really impressive.
I'm in South Mississippi and haven't been in snow for many years. It practically never snows here. (It snowed here once, all the children were allowed to play outside even though it was late, it only lasted for a few hours.)
Short pants and 80 degrees however, do not stop me from decorating with snowmen and reindeers.

hi melvie, we have christmas here in se georgia too. i was born in ohio, moved to florida, now in south east georgia. i think christmas is in your heart wherever you are. just a kid at heart i guess. i miss the snow but not the ice and the cold weather in the low teens but only at christmas time, but i guess we all adjust to the environment we live in. happy holidays to all, vicki

So...Bart hibernated for a little snooze!!!! Thanks! for the pics!! I yr around 1949 we lived at lake in So. Dak. dad opened front door, wow what a shock it was solid hard pack snow, he went to all the windows & no sky to be seen. He went up through the attic & out the window with a shovel, I wanted to go & see if he was OK, seemed like hours, finally there was knock on door & it was a tunnel. Amazing I don't know how many hrs he had shoveled but he wouldn't quit until he knew he could get his family out. That was worst I'd seen. Humans are a resilient bunch!! We seem to make do with whatever we have to!! Thanks for pics Kirk! I guess I better get ready to get out of here, fire is close! Jan

Right after WWII (when they stopped rationing gas!) we moved from Ohio to Arizona. That first Christmas, as little Bullhead City gathered around a huge tree trucked down from Flagstaff, I hugged my two younger sisters to me to help keep them warm (hey, the desert gets COLD in December!) when I noticed our middle sister crying. When I asked her why, she said it didn't seem like Christmas without snow. I thought about that for a minute then reminded her that it didn't snow in Bethlehem (in the desert) where Jesus was born. I don't know if that actually made her feel better, but from that day on, I never missed snow ANY time of the year!! cora

I live in so. cal. and I do decorate with snowmen. Usually just on a wreath and or some yard art. One time I spray painted some tumbleweeds white and made a California snowman! lol....