When you think of your outdoor Christmas decorations this year, there’s simply no denying the sheer beauty of outdoor Christmas lights, which for many, have become a perennial tradition that’s taken rather seriously. Outdoor illumination, as aficionados refer to their Christmas lights and decorations, is something that takes planning and knowhow along with a touch of decorating skills in order to have the most beautiful of displays.
Where to Put All of Those Beautiful Lights?
Usually the placement of Christmas lights is purely a matter of personal preference, that along with the type of home you live in and what you have to work with in terms of the surrounding landscaping. For some people, every single surface is fair game, from the awnings, windows and doors, to the shrubs to the walkways leading to the house, while others prefer a few, solitary strands here and there, perhaps around the front door or on a single bush or tree.
If your close neighbors seem interested in having their Christmas lights visible from outer space, perhaps you should take the high road and create a subtle, but extraordinary display that will look far better than the tackier designs others may enjoy. Consider using all one color so as not to clash with the holiday kaleidoscope surrounding you, or lighting up just the front windows and door instead of the entire porch area.
Or, if you’d like to be as festive as possible and light up the night, here are a few ideas as to where to put your outdoor Christmas lights this year:
- Bushes: Bushes and shrubs are just perfect for Christmas lights of all types, including the older, larger bulb style as well as the newer, mesh kind that drapes across the object like a net and includes many lights on one set, and are also incredibly easy to put on and off.
- Free forms: Use your imagination, a few pieces of wood, a staple gun and you have the potential for creating any number of holiday related free forms out of your Christmas lights. Make your own spiral tree or buy any one of the many premade shapes, designs, and signs that are available today.
- Gutters: Rain gutters are great for attaching Christmas lights with clip-on hooks, especially if you have the type of lights that resemble icicles that hand downward. Using the clips, the lights are rather easy to put up and take down after the holidays and you’ll be illuminating the entire front of the house depending on where your gutters are located.
- Trees: If you’re lucky enough to have trees surrounding your home, use plenty of sets, winding the strands around the branches, even the trunks using clear or multicolored Christmas lights.
- Windows and doors: String lights around the front windows and door, inside or out, either by framing the window or creating a swag of lights at the top. Avoid putting lights all over the whole window as not only will this make it difficult to see out, but it will light up the entire room behind the window as well.
Christmas mini lights are a popular item among those decorating natural or artificial Christmas trees, sculptures or holiday light displays. With each bulb consuming only 1 watt or less, up to three strands may be connected into a single outlet. With the advent of interesting products such as net lights, icicle lights and twinkle lights, the possibilities for easy holiday decoration are practically endless.
The following are a few varieties of mini Christmas lights that are currently being offered:
Battery Operated Mini Christmas Lights.
Battery operated mini lights are an excellent option for Christmas displays that are either far from a line power source, or otherwise need to appear cordless. Sold in sets of 12, we offer both 10 light and 20 light strings. In both cases, you may choose from clear or multi colored options. The battery pack, which requires two (2) D-size batteries, is separated by two feet of cord from the first mini bulb, and each bulb is about six inches apart.
Christmas Icicle Mini Lights.
Our commercial grade Icicle Christmas Mini Light is another quick and easy option for anyone creating indoor and outdoor Christmas displays. Drops are spaced 6″ apart, with a 2.5″ to 4″ spacing between each bulb. We currently offer three basic icicle mini light designs, with 5″ - 15″, 10″ - 20″ and 15″ - 30″ drops. Each icicle mini light strand contains 100 bulbs. The patented clip design ensure that each drop hangs straight, giving the appearance of real icicles. These products sell out quickly, so be sure to call for availability!
Mini Christmas Net Lights.
Net Lights are one quick and easy way to decorate trees, hedges and shrubs for Christmas yard light displays. Our net lights are sold in two sizes: 2′ x 10′ (”hedge topper”) and 4′ x 6′. Up to three nets can be connected together from a single outlet. Sold in sets of 12, our mini Christmas net lights can immediately transform your yard into a glimmering holiday display!
Premium & Commercial Christmas Mini Lights.
Our premium and commercial grade mini lights from American Lighting can be used for both indoor and outdoor applications. The commercial series offers 3,000 hours of performance, while the premium lasts about 1,500 hours. These mini Christmas lights are offered in strings of 35, 50, or 100 lights, with spacing ranging between 2.5 to 6″, and are available in a full spectrum of colors.
Twinkle Christmas Mini Lights.
Our extremely long-lasting (25,000 hours!) twinkle Christmas lights are ideally suited for permanent installation-for the holiday season or even year round. These mini lights are offered in both 15 foot and 80 foot strands, with lights spaced every 6″. Twinkle Christmas mini lights are sold in sets of 12.
Our LED mini string lights are an excellent alternative to standard strings. The color strings have a lamp life of 100,000 hours, while the white light strings last 60,000 hours on average. Our LED Christmas lights have a strong UV rating, making them perfectly safe for outdoor use.Those LED Christmas lights use 80-90% less electricity than standard incandescent Christmas lights.
Contractors and designers should be paid for their creative skills, not high equipment costs that leave them in the end with only minimum profits. The better grade the equipment, the more both the client and the designer save on technology expenses and invest together in a vision rather than a fixture and a wire.
Crocus Christmas Lights are stylish, elegant and have a very organic and natural style to them. They are perfect for those with classic gardens that they want to add a little tasteful decoration to.
Crocus Christmas Lights In Detail
Althought the range of Crocus Christmas lights isn’t huge it is respectful and pack full of stylishly designed lights.
My favourite item was the 80 White Flower Lights which are a bargain and can be used all year round. This brings me onto my first negative comment about the range of Christmas lights from Crocus - they aren’t really Christmas-ie, it could be seen that they were caught out and dumped a few normal lights into a ‘Christmas’ category.
I think that while Crocus Xmas lights are pretty nice, I didn’t see anything for my Christmas display there.
Call me tackey and tastless but when I buy Chrismas lights I buy lights that somehow relate to Christmas - be it iceikle lights, candle lights or a giant glowing santa.
Do you want to decorate your Christmas tree and fight global warming at the same time? Well now you can with solar christmas lighting.
Improvements in technology now mean that the costs of Christmas lights powered by solar energy have reduced to the point that everyone can now afford them. And the best part is that once you have bought and installed them the cost of lighting them is free.
Solar powered lights require no connections to an outlet so there is no electric bill for solar lighting.
Use Solar Lights for Free Lighting at Christmas
Of course you have to live in an area where you get sufficient sunlight each day to charge up the batteries with solar energy during the winter season especially around the Christmas holidays.
Even if it is cloudy it can still be possible to charge a battery enough for good night time lighting, however it is always best to check that the type you are looking to purchase will do this if it is of concern to you.
As with all solar lights installation is easy. Your main problem is going to be finding a location with direct access to sun light for the mini solar panel that collects the suns energy to charge up the power unit. But now there is no need for long and dangerous extension cords trailing around the floor.
You can even get solar lights for Christmas trees which are totally for outdoor use and which will cope with whatever the weather chooses to throw at them. So now you can easily put lights on trees in your yard that were previously out of reach.
A typical scenario might be a string of say 60 lights on a tree along your driveway which are charged by the sun during the day and which turn on automatically at dusk and then run for about eight hours during the night with no energy cost at all.
There are now many different solar lighting solutions designed specifically for use at Christmas and other holiday occasions. Due to the new technology, miniaturization and the use of LED lights you can now find many new and innovative designs that previously you could only dream about.
Solar powered Christmas lights for both indoor and outdoor use are now available in many different fixtures and fittings to suit any use or location you many want them for.
You can of course also use them year round with no energy costs to enhance your yard, property or trees in any way you wish and most units will continue to illuminate from dusk till dawn.
There are many different designs available including string lights, snowman lights, Santa lights, Christmas tree lights, stake lights, garlands, reindeer, snow balls, stars, maple leaves, flowers and in fact almost everything you can imagine for displaying a Christmas theme. And these are all available in many different and beautiful colors.
So now it is easy to create a really festive Christmas attraction or a party atmosphere and decorate a tree or building with one or more sets of solar powered lights designed specially for the holiday season. And you can do all this with no electric cost using free energy direct from the sun.
Perhaps one of your favorite Christmas movies is National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, its one of the all-time Christmas favorites. If you are one who treasures this Christmas classic, you probably consider the idea of this decoration as one of the funniest parts of the film. The reasons for its hilarity are completely universal; anyone who is struggled with a string of Christmas lights, whether that be an outdoor Christmas light decoration or not, knows just how absolutely maddening this decorative process can be.
Despite advancements in bulb technology that leave only the bulb that is dead out and the rest of the string on, outdoor lighting is an absolute no-no if you are day is not off to an absolutely wonderful start. Similar to the disclaimer Dont try this at home, an outdoor light decoration should only be set up by an adult, with a mind happily looking forward to the task at hand, and if you are already dreading it before you begin, do yourself a favor and wait for tomorrow, this is not to be undertaken lightly.
Start Here
Its best to clearly envision what you want your outdoor lighting masterpiece to look like before you begin. Think in terms of lines and colors, what do you want to create with your lighting? Undoubtedly, some people go for all white outdoor lighting, others decorate for Christmas with multi-colored lights.
It all depends on whether you want an elegant look or a fun, festive look. Think about the lines of the house that you can accentuate; of course, the most obvious is to line doorways and roof lines. Another fun option is to make garlands around any hand railings that you have, creating an inviting look.
The simplest type of an outdoor decoration is in fact not outdoors at all. The simplest way to create a festive holiday look for the exterior of your home is to place a single candle light in each window of your home.
Plugged in inside the home and completely manageable from inside, this is by far the easiest way that you can decorate the outside of your house. Its also an absolute classic when it comes to that of an outdoor decoration. The other extreme is the funhouse look, with more lights than house visible, and every tree dressed with lights. Be sure to take safety precautions if you are running this many cables outside your home and if you go for this look, dont forget the animated lawn ornaments.
Overall it is quite easy to see how important an outdoor Christmas lights decoration can be.
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
Just in case you have never seen the film, here is the Christmas lights scene.
Outdoor Christmas lighting will increase the festive mood. You can access several online stores that will offer you an array of Christmas lighting to suit your decorative purposes. Outdoor Christmas lighting system contains number of mini lights. These lighting will give long lasting performance. Outdoor holiday light display provides beautifully decorated lights that are very easy to install. You can install even the giant Christmas lights quite simply by just plugging it in.
Outdoor Christmas lighting is not only beautiful but it also occupies less storage space. You can easily pack it to store when the festival is over. Miniature Outdoor Christmas lighting is also available for both residential and commercial use.
Decorating the home during festive season is always a troublesome process and all of us want to decorate home something special than that of others. Christmas Décor therefore offers you wide variety of Christmas lighting for decorating your outdoor space. Even if you have small space, you can decorate with these lights. You just buy any one of them and simply install it anywhere you like. Your house will then appear bright with these decorative lights.
Outdoor Christmas lighting will surely provide an enjoyment to you. Even a simple spotlight will make wonders. It is a great way to provide an elegant look to your home. It was an expensive process to decorate home with Christmas lighting in the past. People were required to hire an electric contractor to keep outdoor lighting. Such installation would cross normal budgets. Nowadays installing Christmas lighting is very simple. There is no need of an electrician and the house owner himself can install it by plugging it.
Outdoor Christmas tree lighting is yet another wonderful thing that will increase the joyous mood of the children. The advent of electricity had increased the romance and serenity of the festive season. People are decorating Christmas tree with beautiful lights. In Canada and United States, the fashion of illuminating the Christmas tree with decorative lights is increasing. The bright lights in snowy background will provide a heavenly feeling to all.
Electric lights are excellent choice to decorate Outdoor Christmas tree. They are durable and they supply color and light to the outdoor space in the home. Many people are nowadays planting Christmas tree in their yard and they will decorate lights during the eve of Christmas. However artificial Christmas trees are also available for decorative purposes. Safety tips for installing Outdoor Christmas lighting are as follows;
Have a certified Electrician to install outdoor lighting.
Ensure that the lights are intended for outdoor purposes only. See the manual provided by the manufacturer to confirm it.
Use extension cords intended for this purpose only.
Water and electricity should not be mixed. Hence ensure that snow or puddle is away from lighting.
Place bulbs in the sockets.
Remove bulbs only after unplugging them.
Don’t place lights on trees that come in contact with power lines.
If you are using the old lights, ensure that the wire is not having any spots.
You can use decorative outdoor Christmas lighting after taking some precautions. This will surely provide a visual treat to you and to your family members.
Everywhere you look this time of year you’ll see Christmas tree decoration ideas. The good news is that there are many different options available when it comes to decorating your tree. Even better than the multitude of options is the fact that there really is no wrong way in which to decorate your Christmas tree.
Decorate your tree the way you see fit. However, there are some that simply seem to blank when it comes to inspired and innovative decorating ideas. For you, we are here to help.
The place to start when it comes to decorating your Christmas tree is with the lights. What kind of Christmas tree would it be without lights after all? There are many styles, colors, and types of lights to consider when it comes to your Christmas tree be sure to choose the lights that strike your fancy and not the lights you think will drive your family batty (you have to live with the lights you choose too).
In addition to the many choices of lights, there are also quite a few different styles of tree from which to choose. One choice in Christmas tree that is growing in popularity is the white Christmas tree. If you elect a white Christmas tree for your decorating pleasure, a good idea for decorations is to go with a dual-colored theme for your ornaments and lights. Doing this can create a very lovely and elegant Christmas tree.
Assuming you have some red and green ornaments lying around the house it is quite possible to create a beautiful theme by placing these ornaments on a white Christmas tree. You could use red bows and green ornaments or some sort of combination of the two. Of course you could do with any colors you would like. Silver and blue ornaments look quite lovely on a white Christmas tree, as do many other colors. White is neutral and looks pretty good with almost any other color on the market.
When you select a white Christmas tree, you are giving yourself a clean palate upon which to create a Christmas decorating masterpiece. Any color scheme has the possibility of looking beautiful and the fewer colors you use on your tree, the more elegant and less crowded it will appear. Then again, it’s your tree and like I said before, there’s no wrong way to decorate a Christmas tree.
It’s now officially time to start thinking about your outdoor christmas lights. How do I know this? Well look what I have just seen on TV:
That’s right the Coke Christmas Advert which always signal the start of the build up to christmas.
I guess it’s time for me to dig out the christmas lights and start to untangle the cables!
PS - we have just started out youtube christmas lights page which can be seen here
We have put together a great little guide to buying Christmas Garlands. Learn the top 5 tips for buying pre lit Christmas garland. This 5 times can save you time and headaches in the holiday season.
1) Mini-Christmas Lights are not created equal
Miniature Christmas lights have been the standard for Christmas for a very long time. You will want quality lights on your Christmas Garland. The lights on your garland may be on more than the lights on your Christmas tree. Therefore, it makes sense to get the high-quality, long lasting lights on your garland as well. Look for lights with 170 milliamp (mA) or higher lights. The lights should have a 3 year / 3,000 hour warranty.
2) 3 Strand Limit on Chaining Lighted Garland
The mini-lights on Christmas garlands are Underwriters Laboratory (UL) approved to chain up to three strands of lights together. This safety measure should not be overlooked. The lights will work if you plug more than 3 strands together but the UL clearly states that this is not safe. Since most garlands are 9 foot long, it can be challenging to cover an area longer than 25 feet. If you have the need for longer garland, you may consider 50 or 100 foot commercial Christmas garland as an option.
As a helpful hint, when connecting light strings end-to-end, many people will tie the two cords together in a loop and then plug the ends together. This practice is not recommended. By tying the ends together, there is no way the wires can give to stress. If one of the wires gets caught on something, you want the ends to unplug to prevent damage to the light string. A recommended method would be using electrical tape to wrap the end connectors together. This way, the ends can still unplug if something pulls hard on the wire.
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Christmas is nearly here and it is time to get things organized. At this time it is interesting and fun to learn about the new products available in the market. This certainly makes the task of decorating the indoor and the outdoor easier. Thankfully, there are plenty of products available in the market so all you need to do is pick them off the shelves. First of all it is important to think about the theme. Doing that should not be difficult at all, but if you cannot make a decision on your own, ask your friends or relatives for their advice.
“Slowly, the wind of change is blowing, I can feel it in my bones. It is something I yearn for every day of the year. This is the time when the aroma of baked food spreads around and the sound of carols fill the air. It is when sorrows are packed into bags and thrown into the deepest river, when smiles replace tears and happiness reigns… It is that time of the year when a child writes a letter to someone he/she has never seen. It is also when portions of the Earth are bathed in sparkling lights and decorations, where little gifts, hugs and food are exchanged with family, friends, relatives and complete strangers. Yes! It’s Christmas!”
Once you have made up your mind about this, you need to decide on the decorations and ornaments. For this, you could check out stores in and around the area or log on to the Internet. There are animated decorations available in the market; that have objects like the Santa and the reindeer moving on a sleigh, and a lot of other styles too. Then there are the Christmas lights like the full size rope lights; clear mini lights and light ceramic string lights that can be used to light up the area. Why not try something different this year by placing the Christmas tree outside the house. Decorate the tree with all kinds of Christmas decorations like angels, lights shaped like stars, bead garlands and candy canes. If you like creating your own designs, you could further experiment with the look.
Decorate the trees and bushes in your garden with oak leaves, pine cones, twin garlands, acorns and berries. You could also use a bird’s nest to complete the forest theme. On the entrance to your home, you could place a Christmas wreath.
How can we leave Rudolph behind? You could place a figurine decoration of Rudolph in your garden. You could give him a real look by using a mini red light on his nose. Nativity sets with figurines including baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the three wise men make excellent outdoor decorations. Select one after taking into consideration the size of your lawn.
However you plan to decorate your house this Christmas, remember to let it be original and different, just like you are in His sight!
My Christmas Lights
Everything You Ever Needed To Know About Christmas lights Online. We have put together some great articles to help you find the perfect christmas lights.
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