Holiday decoration tips for Second Life?

[Gopi Passiflora]

Hello, I was wondering if you guys have tips for making the most of your purchased or created decor (for any celebration such as Halloween, Christmas, and Easter) and using them for building cool and memorable scenes?

Thanks!

[Love Zhaoying]

Easy advice: If the items you get are Copy and Mod,  you can place multiple copies out with a single purchase, and remove parts that do not suit your needs.

 

[Gopi Passiflora]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

Easy advice: If the items you get are Copy and Mod,  you can place multiple copies out with a single purchase, and remove parts that do not suit your needs.

 

Sounds like a great idea! I'll try it.

[Nalates Urriah]

@Gopi Passiflora You can search the Marketplace (MP) for the latest and oldest or by price for any season. The variations, like oldest, make for some interesting changes in the results. Anything that changes the Results order can be interesting.

Plus the MP is a fast way to scroll through what is available. Then you can visit the in-world shops, which will have stuff on display and likely provide ideas.

Here in the forum to get recommendations one usually has to ask about a specific holiday or season. And this People section of the forum is not a particularly good place to ask your question. The Building and Texturing section is likely to get you more answers.

I store all my decorations in folders named by season or holiday in Objects.

Edited September 5 by Nalates Urriah

[InnerCity Elf]

On 9/3/2024 at 8:45 PM, Love Zhaoying said:

Easy advice: If the items you get are Copy and Mod,  you can place multiple copies out with a single purchase, and remove parts that do not suit your needs.

 

And as an alternative to that, items that are transferable can also be nice,  although harder to find. I like gacha (or does it have a different name now) furniture and decorations, as they have a somewhat more unique, flea market or antiques shop feel somehow, and giving away an autumn item I had out to a stranger who came by and commented on it, that was a gacha and transferable, it was much more SL fun than I'd have had keeping them. (as a bonus, they didn't clutter my inventory for the rest of the year, and it was a good reason to find something new, there are so many beautiful things...)

[Gopi Passiflora]

On 9/5/2024 at 3:47 PM, Nalates Urriah said:

@Gopi Passiflora You can search the Marketplace (MP) for the latest and oldest or by price for any season. The variations, like oldest, make for some interesting changes in the results. Anything that changes the Results order can be interesting.

Plus the MP is a fast way to scroll through what is available. Then you can visit the in-world shops, which will have stuff on display and likely provide ideas.

Here in the forum to get recommendations one usually has to ask about a specific holiday or season. And this People section of the forum is not a particularly good place to ask your question. The Building and Texturing section is likely to get you more answers.

I store all my decorations in folders named by season or holiday in Objects.

I guess you're right, the Building and Texturing forum is a better place to ask about decorating tips. I also like your other suggestions, such as looking through the in-world shops. Thanks for the suggestions, overall!

[Ayashe Ninetails]

Heya @Gopi Passiflora. I don't do much holiday decorating (well, I do some on rare occasions if the mood hits), but I've got some general tips for it.

1) Buy mod and full-perm. Since I generally like customizing my own accessories whenever possible, I'm always grabbing random every day full-perm items off the MP. Food, for the most part, but there are lots of options. With that, I can design my own holiday food plates and displays.

2) Shop all-year-round. Don't wait until holidays - it's not hard to find decor all-year-round that'll work for holiday displays. Orange cushions on sale on a random Saturday in February? Grab em.

3) Grab freebies from everywhere. Holiday Shop & Hops, group gifts, advent calendars, events - all of it. Most will be mod if you're lucky, so you can add them to your displays (or in my case, my themed holiday antlers). Seraphim puts out a list of stores doing advent gifts every year, but you get to know the regulars.

4) Buy holiday photography backdrops or get them from store group and advent gifts. Depending on the store, they'll be mod and you can dismantle them for "parts." 

5) Buy furniture that's either mod or that comes with a large texture HUD. Some will include holiday-like patterns, or you can retexture them yourself.

6) If you ever stumble across nice rugs, get em. Really good rugs are hard to come by.

7) Put weird stuff weird places. I'm a huge fan of making elaborate food and drink displays for absolutely no good reason whatsoever and using them to decorate outdoor patios, the front entrance, the living room, the kitchen, bedrooms, in the garden - you name it, it's getting a side table of goodies. You should be able to find things like holiday cakes and cookies and drinks fairly easily (any good food store will have stuff like that) or you can mod em and stack them into shapes (like trees).

😎 Keep an eye out for deep storewide discount sales. 50% and higher. Some stores run 50L sales. Grab everything holiday-ish they have (keep an eye on Apple Fall, Dust Bunny, Tarte, etc.).

9) Think in seasons instead of holidays. A store like Maya's or others that offer good landscaping/outdoors items might have a great autumn tree you can add additional decorations to to make it Halloweeny. Hot dog pool floaties might not look like much on their own until you're needing something to decorate your backyard in a summer/BBQ 4th of July theme.

10) Think in complex color stories and palettes to avoid getting stuck in basic 2-3 color patterns (red and green and gold for Christmas, red and pink for Valentine's, etc.). You can find color palettes for inspiration all over Pinterest, or just use Google.

11) Take larger stuff and shrink it down and then create mini scenes with it. Make holiday displays for ants. Those can be used to decorate small areas like fireplace mantles, small side tables, and window sills.

12) Last tip - think beyond common decorations. Yes, you'll find plenty of lights and trees and heart decor and tinsel and things. Look beyond that. Mugs with cute holiday slogans are all over the place. Door mats. Artwork. Signs. Candles. Books. Pillows. Themed alphabet letter sets you can spell your own words with. Plants. Potion bottles. Knick-knacks. Statues. Flower displays. Lots of stuffs.

Edit: Well played, point 8. I knew you were gonna go smiley on me.

Edited September 7 by Ayashe Ninetails
Added stuffs

[Polenth Yue]

Free gifts at seasonal events tend to be focused on that season, which means a better hit rate of useful decor gifts than general events. I use quite a few items I've had as gifts (and it also highlights creators to target for the things I don't have).

If you have a certain theme in mind, think of the search terms connected to it (for searching inventory and the marketplace). I'm doing eyeballs this year, so also looking for stuff like gazer, watcher, peepers, cyclops and Biblically accurate.

[Bree Giffen]

I finally went through the shop n hop gifts from last year and there are quite a few decorations you can get for free. You can expect a home decoration from a furniture store but many different kinds of stores will give you random decorative gifts. I don't think you can fully decorate with gifts though. Unless you like an eclectic design. Using the shop n  hop does help with discovering stores and then going to the main location of those stores allows you to dive deeper into their products. 

[Porky Gorky]

I've got 2 words for ya...

PBR Baubles!

Your welcome.

[Love Zhaoying]

41 minutes ago, Porky Gorky said:

I've got 2 words for ya...

PBR Baubles!

Your welcome.

As in, Christmas Tree ornaments? (In addition to whatever you meant specifically..)

[Love Zhaoying]

20 hours ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Heya @Gopi Passiflora. I don't do much holiday decorating (well, I do some on rare occasions if the mood hits), but I've got some general tips for it.

1) Buy mod and full-perm. Since I generally like customizing my own accessories whenever possible, I'm always grabbing random every day full-perm items off the MP. Food, for the most part, but there are lots of options. With that, I can design my own holiday food plates and displays.

2) Shop all-year-round. Don't wait until holidays - it's not hard to find decor all-year-round that'll work for holiday displays. Orange cushions on sale on a random Saturday in February? Grab em.

3) Grab freebies from everywhere. Holiday Shop & Hops, group gifts, advent calendars, events - all of it. Most will be mod if you're lucky, so you can add them to your displays (or in my case, my themed holiday antlers). Seraphim puts out a list of stores doing advent gifts every year, but you get to know the regulars.

4) Buy holiday photography backdrops or get them from store group and advent gifts. Depending on the store, they'll be mod and you can dismantle them for "parts." 

5) Buy furniture that's either mod or that comes with a large texture HUD. Some will include holiday-like patterns, or you can retexture them yourself.

6) If you ever stumble across nice rugs, get em. Really good rugs are hard to come by.

7) Put weird stuff weird places. I'm a huge fan of making elaborate food and drink displays for absolutely no good reason whatsoever and using them to decorate outdoor patios, the front entrance, the living room, the kitchen, bedrooms, in the garden - you name it, it's getting a side table of goodies. You should be able to find things like holiday cakes and cookies and drinks fairly easily (any good food store will have stuff like that) or you can mod em and stack them into shapes (like trees).

😎 Keep an eye out for deep storewide discount sales. 50% and higher. Some stores run 50L sales. Grab everything holiday-ish they have (keep an eye on Apple Fall, Dust Bunny, Tarte, etc.).

9) Think in seasons instead of holidays. A store like Maya's or others that offer good landscaping/outdoors items might have a great autumn tree you can add additional decorations to to make it Halloweeny. Hot dog pool floaties might not look like much on their own until you're needing something to decorate your backyard in a summer/BBQ 4th of July theme.

10) Think in complex color stories and palettes to avoid getting stuck in basic 2-3 color patterns (red and green and gold for Christmas, red and pink for Valentine's, etc.). You can find color palettes for inspiration all over Pinterest, or just use Google.

11) Take larger stuff and shrink it down and then create mini scenes with it. Make holiday displays for ants. Those can be used to decorate small areas like fireplace mantles, small side tables, and window sills.

12) Last tip - think beyond common decorations. Yes, you'll find plenty of lights and trees and heart decor and tinsel and things. Look beyond that. Mugs with cute holiday slogans are all over the place. Door mats. Artwork. Signs. Candles. Books. Pillows. Themed alphabet letter sets you can spell your own words with. Plants. Potion bottles. Knick-knacks. Statues. Flower displays. Lots of stuffs.

Edit: Well played, point 8. I knew you were gonna go smiley on me.

You're like Martha Stewart for Second Life!

(And not like in that SNL skit where she was nood, either!)

 

[Porky Gorky]

15 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

As in, Christmas Tree ornaments? (In addition to whatever you meant specifically..)

This comment has me wondering what alternative use you have for your baubles that led to your confusion and prompted you to ask this question?

[Ayashe Ninetails]

32 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

You're like Martha Stewart for Second Life!

(And not like in that SNL skit where she was nood, either!)

I'll take the compliment! That means I get a free pass to hang out with Snoop.

 

Now, who IS the Snoop of Second Life?

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

I'll take the compliment! That means I get a free pass to hang out with Snoop.

 

Now, who IS the Snoop of Second Life?

 

[Love Zhaoying]

41 minutes ago, Porky Gorky said:

This comment has me wondering what alternative use you have for your baubles that led to your confusion and prompted you to ask this question?

Table decorations (for centerpieces, etc.), door decorations (for wreaths, etc.), festive jewelry, hanging from a holiday "ugly sweater", decorations for gift bags, paperweights, aquarium accessories..

.."baubles" is a generic term, least associated with Christmas tree ornaments (in the US).

Here in the US at least, such ornaments are usually just called "ornaments", not "baubles". The definition of "baubles" doesn't even mention the tree ornaments: 

noun

noun: bauble; plural noun: baubkes

 

1. a small, showy trinket or decoration.

"clutch bags embellished with glittering baubles"

something that is superficially attractive but useless or worthless.

"people in quest of honors are wasting time and effort to secure baubles"
2. HISTORICAL

a baton formerly used as an emblem by jesters.

Edited September 7 by Love Zhaoying

[Porky Gorky]

32 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Here in the US at least, such ornaments are usually just called "ornaments", not "baubles". The definition of "baubles" doesn't even mention the tree ornaments: 

Thank you Love. Clearly I am just a bauble ignoramus and will steer clear of any bauble related discussions in future. I am clearly out of my depth.

[Love Zhaoying]

54 minutes ago, Porky Gorky said:

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Here in the US at least, such ornaments are usually just called "ornaments", not "baubles". The definition of "baubles" doesn't even mention the tree ornaments: 

Thank you Love. Clearly I am just a bauble ignoramus and will steer clear of any bauble related discussions in future. I am clearly out of my depth.

Not at all! You asked a question, and I answered it as respectfully and fully as I could. 🙂 

 

[Sydelle Zanzibar]

If you are getting landscaping or a house and you want snow for winter, plan ahead when you purchase and get season changing trees, and houses with Snow cover addons. I can just go around and click my trees to change the season on them. If you have a building with a flat roof and want snow, its easy to just add a snow texture to a flat prim to cover it. 

Make a seasonal folder in your inventory with the holidays as subfolders. that way all your good holiday stuff is all together. 

If you want things to be festive without going all out, pick a few specific places on your land that you will decorate for holidays. I have a corner in my house for a display and the porch is for decorating with maybe some stuff spilling out on the lawn. But the rest of my house is just normal everyday things, cause if i put it all over, i will forget its there for sure. 

Join groups that point out the good group gifts and cheap things.

Go to the Shop n Hops, I have so much holiday themed stuff from those since they give out so many free gifts. 

 

[Bubblesort Triskaidekaphobia]

On 9/6/2024 at 9:27 PM, Ayashe Ninetails said:

12) Last tip - think beyond common decorations. Yes, you'll find plenty of lights and trees and heart decor and tinsel and things. Look beyond that. Mugs with cute holiday slogans are all over the place. Door mats. Artwork. Signs. Candles. Books. Pillows. Themed alphabet letter sets you can spell your own words with. Plants. Potion bottles. Knick-knacks. Statues. Flower displays. Lots of stuffs.

I like to grab cheap full perm stuff, like this, and retexture them with holiday colors and graphics.  You can hand paint them, or a quick google search will turn up all kinds of holiday textures you can use for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  It takes some cropping and adjusting to fit the UV maps, but it's really not that difficult.  These can also be a great project for teaching noobs how mesh texturing works.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

4 hours ago, Bubblesort Triskaidekaphobia said:

I like to grab cheap full perm stuff, like this, and retexture them with holiday colors and graphics.  You can hand paint them, or a quick google search will turn up all kinds of holiday textures you can use for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  It takes some cropping and adjusting to fit the UV maps, but it's really not that difficult.  These can also be a great project for teaching noobs how mesh texturing works.

That's an awesome tip! I don't really spend too much time texturing my own stuff and generally rely on the included textures, but if I did, I'd probably be able to spend less time hunting down that ONE perfect pattern. 😂

[Love Zhaoying]

If you created a holiday decoration yourself and want to give copies away, you can use a basic script for people to touch the item and get a copy.

 

Edited September 8 by Love Zhaoying
Rewording

[Eddy Vortex]

You can put out something like this and you'll be set for the next three months:

[Love Zhaoying]

12 minutes ago, Eddy Vortex said:

You can put out something like this and you'll be set for the next three months:

Perhaps add a "Mariah Free Zone" sign. (Picture is from a news story, where a bar in Sydney banned the MC Christmas song.)

[Love Zhaoying]

I noticed the MP has "reindeer poop".  https://marketplace.secondlife.com/en-US/products/search?utf8=✓&search[category_id]=&search[maturity_level]=GMA&search[keywords]=reindeer+poop

Traditionally, people would toss dung onto their snow-covered roofs, and proclaim to the children that the "reindeer poop" is "proof that Santa visited".