It is a tradition for many people around the country to decorate their homes with outdoor Christmas lights during the holiday season. Whether it is Christmas spirit, the desire to annoy your neighbors with a brightly lit house and yard, or just because you enjoy decorating for any holiday outdoor lighting is part of the equation. There are many types of outdoor lights available and all have their pros and cons.
Traditionally many people used the standard color outdoor Christmas tree lights for decoration. For those that wanted a more elegant look chose to go with white outdoor Christmas tree lights. Going all white does give your house and yard a more wintery feel to it. If you want a more festive look stay with the colored lights as they do give a more whimsical and Christmassy feel to your decorations. Traditional lights come in a couple of sizes, and you will need to decide what works for you. While not as popular for consumers used, the old large c9 light bulbs can still be found in stores. They come in both white and multi colored strings, but are more often seen used in commercial use. The most popular choice for traditional type bulbs are mini lights. These can be found in many configurations white, multi colored, or single colored strands. You will also find them in many lengths for various uses. Do you only have a small tree to light up in your yard? Why buy a 200 light strand when you may only need 25 or 50. The drawback to the traditional Christmas light is they are quick to burn out. Also many people are looking to cut down on their energy expenses and for their size they use almost as much power as regular lighting and can sometimes be expensive to run if you have allot of them decorating your home.
For those people who are looking to decrease their electricity costs, or who are moving to a more “green” lifestyle there are a couple of choices you have to look at. First there are outdoor led Christmas lights available almost everywhere. These were introduced several years ago and have since dropped in price drastically and are close to the same price as traditional mini lights. They come in several configurations like mini lights in both colors and strand lengths for multiple uses. There are two major pros when it comes to led lights. They consume about 10 percent of the power traditional lights use and the bulbs last years longer than mini or larger C9 bulbs. A note to those who like to use larger C9 bulbs, if you search around the internet you will find stores that do sell C9 leg light bulbs and strands of C9 lights. The drawback of course is they are slightly more expensive that traditional lights, but you will make up for it because of their durability and the energy cost savings.
The next choice for the green crowd is solar outdoor Christmas lights. These are sold in strands from 25-200 lights in many color configurations. While these are great because they require no electrical outlet and can be placed anywhere they do have a few drawbacks. First is because they are solar powered you need to make sure you place the solar battery charger in a place it will receive the most sunlight. This brings us to number two batteries are required and can occasionally need replacing. The biggest drawback is their costs, with small 30-50 light strands starting at $15 to $25 dollars and can reach up to $50 dollars for longer strands.
As you can see there are many choices for outdoor Christmas lights. Remember to be sure you know ahead of time what you will be decorations. Make sure you have the proper extension cords if you need them. Most importantly be sure your buying lights rated for outdoor use to keep safety at its highest.