Winterizing Your Containers
Now that we have had some hard frost and your fall containers are probably looking a little “worse for the wear”, you should think of things to put in them that will look good thru winter.
There are some good hardy shrubs that you can consider.  Evergreens, such as spruces, pines and junipers work well for needles with blue, green or golden color.  Japanese Maples have a nice silhouette, especially the weeping varieties.  Red Twig Dogwoods add great red branches thru winter and Winterberry Holly is a deciduous holly (lose their leaves in winter) that has a beautiful show of berries.  These are all hardy plants that you can plant in your containers for winter.  Do not worry about these plants getting sun during the winter, as they do not require sun when they are dormant.  On a porch or patio they will be fine.  Also being a little sheltered will be good for the plants.
Another thing to do if you do not want to plant shrubs in your containers is to use branches of these and other trees and shrubs to create a beautiful winter display.  Besides Spruces, Pines, Junipers, Red Twig Dogwoods and Winterberry try these:

For evergreen foliage:                          
-Hemlock
-Cypress
-Cedar                                 
-Fir

For broadleaf evergreens and berries:   
-Holly                                                 
-Nandina                                                   
-Mahonia
-Boxwood
-Euonymus

For berries, colorful and interesting bark:
-Birch
-Burning Bush
-Cotoneaster
-Walking Stick
-Coral Bark Maple

Use a mixture of evergreens to add different textures and colors.  Also, do not forget to add some ribbon and a bow on your container to make it more festive.