What’s Christmastime without a bit of decorative lighting sprinkled everywhere? Ah, the houses have to be bright enough for Santa Claus to maneuver his sleigh in the nighttime sky to the right houses and shove himself into the chimney, all laden with gifts! But, keeping Santa aside, the lights bring on a festive charm like nothing else can. Outdoor Christmas lights proclaim to all passers-by that you are celebrating the joy of the season. Your lights must definitely match this feeling of joy.
Christmas lights come in several different forms, and you will really be confounded if you visit a store selling these lights. There are the basic round colored bulbs that have been used traditionally, but then there are many fancy shapes available nowadays. This year’s favorites seem to be the pearly bulbs, which are actually shaped round like pearls and given a glossy sheen on their outward surface to make them seem more so. Heart shaped bulbs are still present, and you will also find more thematic Christmas lights such as those shaped in the form of icicles, candies, and even holly and mistletoe!
Now you have to select how much length of bulb strings you will require. Do not be a Scrooge about buying these bulb strings, especially since you are going to light up the entire exterior of your house, which includes the bushes and the brambles. Bulb strings are nonperishable, so you can stock them in your loft or attic and use them the next year too. You may even experiment with the same bulbs to give a wholly different look to the decoration. Anyways, you will be requiring adequate length to at least cover the front side of your house twice over. Add a few feet of bulb string to cover up for those unavoidable folds and knots you might have to make. If you are dressing up the bushes with outdoor Christmas lights too, then take good-sized length, because bushes have an undesirable habit of camouflaging most of the decorative lights.
You can also get cute little lights for your crib. These are the LED Christmas lights, and they come in several different colors. A favorite is to line up the surface of the crib table with a string of LED Christmas lights. You can even add a router to the string to make these lights blink on and off. LED Christmas lights can also be put on the barks of your outdoor trees and can be lined around your flowerpots outside the house.
You will, of course, need a wireman to put up the electric points for you outside the house. You can do the setting up of the light strings yourself later on (that’s the creative part anyways), but let the wireman pull out a line from inside the house and provide you with the connection. This is necessary, or you might have to spend Christmastime with a hairstyle resembling that of a freshly plucked turkey.
The best part is putting up the lights. You can have a whole family thing here, with each one contributing in their way. Even the kiddies can help in handing out stuff when you are perched atop the stool to put up the lights. One of the most traditional ways is to run the light string along the edges of the house, but no one says you cannot experiment. You can use the LED Christmas lights to write out small messages like ‘Season’s Greetings’ on an outdoor wall of the house. If you have a fence, try getting the new fashion pipe Christmas lights to work on the top portion of the fence. Pipe lights work wonders with picket fences.
Do not forget to cover up the bushes too. When done, take the wire into the carefully hidden outdoor electrical socket. Now wait until Christmas eve to turn on the Christmas light magic in your home.
The ultimate goal of anyone who loves to decorate their garden for Christmas is to set up a full light show that includes music. These shows can be difficult to set up, but they are spectacular to see and are well worth the effort.
Here are some steps to get your started on creating your own outside christmas lights show:
Do your Research.
Before going any further, be aware that setting up a Christmas lightshow as part of your outside Christmas decorations take a lot of time and patience. It can be a great hobby, but it’s not as easy as plugging some lights in flipping a switch. So, if you are ready, keep reading.
You are going to need a few items to make this work:
1. A computer to do the programming.
2. A light controller with multiple channels. This is what controls the lights.
3. A software program to program the light controller. This will define when the lights turn on and off in relation to the music.
4. An FM transmitter to broadcast your music. Another option is a pair of speakers on your front porch, but it is unlikely that the neighbors appreciate the same song playing over and over again.
5. The lights! For a complete effect, this should include not just regular lights, but icicle lights, net lights and yard displays.
Organize and Plan.
Now you are getting down to the fun part. To make the show work, you will need to sit down with pencil and paper and design your system. Decide what music you want to play (preferably something that has to do with Christmas), and where the decorations will be. Your plan should include a drawing of your front yard, with sketches and notes on how the show will work.
Buy Your Equipment and Decorations
Now that you have your plan, you are ready to buy your decorations. This can get expensive fast, so do some research to make sure you aren’t overpaying. I suggest going through the internet for the software and control box for the lights. A search in Google or Yahoo should yield several results and allow you to compare several options.
Test, Test, and Test!
It’s important enough to say again: Test, Test, and Test! The first thing you should do is set up your controller for a single set of lights and make sure you can get it to turn on and off. Then get it to turn on and off to music. Then add a second set of lights and make sure you can get that one to turn on and off. See why this takes so long? It can be tedious, but the results are well worth it.
Set It All Up
After everything is programmed, it’s just a matter of setting it up. Hang the lights, set up the displays, and plug it in.
Now, all you have left to do is sip hot cocoa and watch your neighbors scramble to get their decorations looking half as good as yours!
Good Luck and Merry Christmas!
You’ve tended your gardens all summer long and enjoyed the bright colors and fragrant blooms that resulted from your work. Now that winter is coming, don’t stop there; you can continue to have a stunning landscape throughout the cooler months.
Here are some twists on old ideas that can help turn your garden into a winter wonderland.
During the holidays, homeowners love to string icicle lights across the eaves or outline windows on the front of the house. While common practice, it is so… common.
Mini outdoor christmas lights strung on a Christmas tree have an almost magical effect. Why not create some of that magic outdoors in your garden? Hang strands of mini lights around evergreen trees, shrubs, or flowering hedges; taking care to avoid any bare trunks or branches. If you have an outdoor statue, create a necklace out of bittersweet, add some lights and hang it around the figure’s neck. Layer spruce, cedar, or other evergreens through the slats on a garden trellis, arbor or pergola. Add some berries or pine cones and highlight with mini-lights.
Natural evergreen wreaths with bright bows make a fence or post come alive, especially with added lights.
Window boxes, cast iron planters or other containers can benefit from the same treatment. Just use plenty of layering with natural foliage and extend it over the edges as though it were over flowing. Add some colorful accents and lights.
Once you empty your summer planters, don’t put them away, now it’s time to begin your winter arrangement. You’ll be dealing with dead plant material so there will be no worrying about watering or fertilizing. Look to pine, spruce or cedar evergreen sprigs, dogwood branches, berries, ivy, boxwood, holly or ornamental grasses. Supplement your finds with some hardy dried plants such as heather, roses, or cone flowers. Concentrate not only on color, but using a variety of shapes and textures as well.
Next spring, consider adding some garden plants for their winter landscaping value. Good choices include red-twig dogwood, holly, hemlocks, creeping cotoneasters, climbing hydrangea, river birches, Japanese variegated silver grass, blue oat grass and sedges.
The great thing about this type of landscaping, with no obvious themes, it still looks great long after the holidays are over.
Christmas is just around the corner. If you are in market for holiday decoration, consider the elegant looking solar Christmas lights. Like other solar products solar Christmas lights do not produce any gas emissions and is environment friendly. The lights are same as any other decorative lights. But the big benefit of using solar powered lights is they do not need a power outlet and no worry about fire or other house damages. You do not have to run any power cord from your garage or house to the yard. You do not have to decorate your yard or house around the power outlet. The lights reduce your energy bill during holiday season.
Solar panel absorbs sun energy and transfers it into electricity. Some Christmas lights have battery that stores the electricity derived from sun. Some lights has panel on top of it, so you have to put them where they direct sun light. For some lights you have to put the panel in direct sun light and run the cord to string of lights. The LED bulbs on lights have long life span than ordinary light bulb. You do not have to buy Christmas lights every year.
Installing the lights takes about 2-3 minutes. Mount the light on the ground and you are done. Let the sun do the rest of the work. The lights turn on automatically at dusk. So you do not have to remember to turn the holiday lights at night.
The lights come in different shapes and sizes. Just imagine your holiday decoration and the solar powered lights will fulfill it. With the solar lights you can decorate any area of your home. You are not limited to decorate near the power cord. Using these lights you can enjoy Christmas and at the same time save money on your energy bill. These lights are great to use near road, trees, mailbox or lamp post.
Soon after Thomas Edison developed the light bulb that could be used for commercial use, the idea of Christmas tree lights was one of the first applications. Before the discovery of electricity candles were used as Christmas lights. The dangers of this were of major concern at the times.
As time evolved the candles had glass covers, or metal lanterns with small wicks and were hung on the trees like ornaments on Christmas trees. Think about doing that in this day and age: a recipe for a burning house.
Even with the dangers it took many years for holiday tree lights to become commercially available. It’s said that the idea of these lights came from Edison’s assistant, Edward Johnson: he had the bulbs made specially for his house and he displayed them his Christmas tree lights at his home on New York City.
From these humble beginnings the Christmas tree lights went through many changes before General Electric introduced them commercially. The early days of lights on Christmas trees was night lights strung together to make long stings of lights. You may have seen these in some old pictures. Those large bulbs that would shatter into a million pieces when they hit the floor.
Christmas mini lights were introduced in the mid to late 1970’s. There have been many changes to the original Christmas lights but for the most part they are the same. Sales have climbed as application for these lights have changed to not just decorating the tree but also used as outdoor Christmas lights. Icicle lights are the most popular and are seen on most homes that use outdoor lighting at Christmas time. Outdoor decorative lighting has become one of the most popular types and can become somewhat of a competition among neighbors. Many people will use animated Christmas lights that can create a spectacular scene and some are even animated.
Many of the lights used now are led lights. They are long lasting and if one light goes out the whole string will still work, not like the old days, if one light was out you had to go through one by one to figure out the bad bulb. And with some holiday light strings of 100 or more, it was not a fun task. So make sure before you purchase your next set of Christmas lights that it says on the box that you don’t have to replace a bad bulb to make the whole string of lights work.
Thanks for visiting My Christmas Lights. We have taken the time to organise information that can help you to learn about outdoor christmas lights. If you’re looking to buy christmas lights, or just lights information in general, you have come to the right place.
If any of you would like more information on outside christmas lights, please feel free to let us know. Thanks again for the visit and make sure to check back often to receive additional information on christmas lights.
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