A metal roof is a marvelous, long-lasting feature that helps protect your home while lowering your repair and utility costs, but it presents a conundrum for those who like to go all out with their holiday displays. There aren't as many places where you can hook or nail brackets for lights around the roof, and the surface of the metal roof creates quite a different terrain. You can still decorate, though, as long as you make a few changes.

Magnetic Lights or Magnetic Clips

The easiest change will be the use of magnetic lights. You can buy holiday lights that have built-in magnets, or get special brackets in which you'd fit your existing lights into. The magnets adhere to the metal around the roof quickly, though they may not adhere well to nearby features like aluminum gutters. Still, these magnetic lights and brackets allow you to place and remove the lights within a few minutes while still giving your house that colorful, bright aura you want for the holidays.

Do be careful taking them down. You can pull them down but do so slowly so that the lights don't all come down at once and fall into the landscaping. The lights are lightweight and shouldn't damage shrubs, but having a bunch of bulbs suddenly fall into your muddy, icy shrubbery would get the cord and bulbs dirty and wet -- a cleanup job that you don't want to deal with.

Don't Do DIY Roof Characters

A lot of people like to have those motorized or inflated characters on top of their roofs, but with metal roofing, there's a warning: Do not put them up there yourself. Metal roofing is a lot smoother than asphalt tile, and the risk of you falling is substantially greater. Have a professional decoration company add the characters if you really want them up there. Otherwise, see if you have enough room in the front yard for those animatronic reindeer.

Check Wiring and Outlets

Any decoration that uses electricity and that will be on the roof should be inspected for frayed cords first, and all exterior outlets should be ground-fault circuit interrupting outlets. That would, of course, apply no matter your roofing material, but the importance of this can't be overstated. It's easy to assume that with the magnets, the lights will stay up, but if they get pulled down by mistake (for example a cat jumping up and down off the roof drags the lights with it), you don't want snow causing a short.

The roofing company that installed your roof may also have more advice about how to safely add holiday decorations. Call them if you have questions. To learn more, contact a company like Premium Panels Inc.