Festive Flop

by Joy Howard

Jill Sprankell of Carrollton, Texas, says her mail carrier inspired this idea when he jokingly warned her not to fall into the bushes as she hung her holiday decorations. A bonus: The spoof requires hanging just half the lights! (Jill also came up with the idea for "Antarctic Auditions," another winter lawn display.)

Materials

2 (5-foot) 1-inch-diameter wooden dowels (we used tomato stakes)
Newspaper
Duct tape
Adult's jeans
Adult's work or snow boots
Large safety pins

Plastic grocery bags
Permanent marker
Plastic lawn sign, 15 by 19 inches or larger (we got ours at an office supply store for $5)
Outdoor string lights
Ladder

Instructions

Wrap one end of each dowel with enough crumpled newspaper to keep it from shifting after it's placed in a boot, and secure the paper with tape.
Slide a dowel through each leg of the jeans, then slip on the boots. Attach the jeans to the boots with safety pins.
Loosely fill several plastic grocery bags with newspaper, tie them closed, and stuff them into the jeans, shaping the legs as you go.
Write "Oops!" on the lawn sign.
To set up the scene, invert the legs and place the dowel ends in a shrub or bush. Arrange the sign, lights, and ladder (we secured ours in packed snow) as shown.