Winter is almost upon us. Days are getting shorter and shorter, temperatures are falling and the wooden swing set in your backyard isn’t getting much use.

But while it may be too cold for your kids to spend much time outdoors, that doesn’t mean you can’t get some use out of your backyard playset for at least part of this winter.

You’ve already put up holiday decorations on the front of your home? Why not do the same thing with your swing set?

There’s precedent for this concept; a few months ago, we talked about ways you could decorate your swing set for Halloween. Doing the same thing for Christmas can happen in a few easy steps.

Lights and Garland

It’s easy to string lights along a swing set, whether you’re hanging icicle lights from the horizontal beams and wrapping lights around the legs. You could also decorate the space around the swing set by putting up plastic or inflatable decorations: Candy canes, reindeer or a Nativity scene.

Of all the holidays on the calendar, Halloween might be the most fun: getting dressed up, watching scary movies, going to parties.

And that’s just the adults. For kids, Halloween is even more fun: you get to do everything we just described, and you get a night where you can roam the streets in search of free candy.

Part of the fun – for kids and adults alike –is decorating. Some people go all out, turning their homes into haunted houses to thrill trick-or-treaters.