Best Outdoor Christmas Lights in 2021

Length and Size – A set of good Christmas lights are never quite long enough; let's just accept that as a fact before getting started. From 10 to 100-foot lengths, you're probably going to come up a bit short, so plan accordingly.

Most light strings typically space their lights at a fairly standard 6 inches apart. This means that you can begin to estimate your light string needs on the total number of bulbs involved. For instance, a standard 9-foot tree will require around 1,000 bulbs to fully fill the tree, according to tree decorating pros. However, there's a wide variety of trees, so consider the width and height of your holiday conifer and choose accordingly.

Now, if you're hoping to go full Clark W. Griswold on the exterior of your house, he claimed a total of "25,000 incandescent bulbs" to light his abode. Experts think the scene required three to four times more than his quote, however. So, if you want to really set the standard for your block, free up a significant budget and shoot for the moon.

Shape – Christmas lights come in many shapes and sizes. The classic design that most would recognize is called a "C7," which is more of a cone than a bulb. The C-shape, while traditional, has seen a lot of size iterations over the years. This line comes in either a seven or a nine, which refers to their diameter.

The G-shape is a standard, round bulb. This globe-style bulb often comes in multiple colors and are great for the exterior of houses as their sizing ranges around that of a ping pong ball. This unit emits a lot of light but can be fragile when made of glass.

The T and S-shaped bulbs are more industrial and typically used in outdoor patio situations. The S-bulb is often seen in an Edison format and comes in a medium yellow hew.

Color – The most common Christmas bulb is white. The color temperature of a white bulb has a wide range. From bright yellow to pure white, these bulbs can elicit a very warm tone to a cold blue-white color that elicits more of a snowy effect. When buying white Christmas lights, be sure to keep an eye out for the color temperature.

The color temperature of white ranges from 2,700-6,000 k, or Kelvin. This value will tell you just how warm or cool the light you are buying truly looks when fully lit. 2,700 is very yellow or warm, where 6,000 is closer to daylight.

If white isn't the right application, there's probably a color out there for you. From reds, blues, greens, and even pinks, there's no limit to the kind of coloration your house can have if you look for it.

Weatherproof – Given their weather exposure, you'd think it best to buy some Christmas lights that can handle the conditions. Nearly all of the lights you'll see on the market are water-resistant. Some come with an IP rating, ensuring that they've passed some level of testing, but none are truly waterproof. The weakest link in the Christmas light chain is always the plug. Where you plug your lights in will play a huge role in whether you end up with a short string of lights or if they shine bright all season.

Your best bet is to access a plug that is indoors or at least sheltered from the elements. Once you've done that if you feel like you really need to go the distance on water resistance, look for something with an IP65 rating or higher. This will give you peace of mind when snow begins to accumulate on the lights.

Another precaution we'd warn you about is snowmelt. If your season starts to warm before the cold really sets in, you may see a lot of moisture coming off your house due to melting snow. If that's the case, simply unplug the lights for the time being until the temperature drops and the snow starts to fly again. Christmas lights do not emit much heat, so once it's cold enough, it's unlikely that they will melt the surrounding snow.

Style – Curating your own design style is important when decorating the house. How you go about placing your string of lights will be dictated, in part, but the type of lights you own. Larger bulbs are great when placing along leading lines of your house or landscaping. These larger bulbs can create definition amongst the rest of the lights, ensuring that your house still has a three-dimensional look.

If you only have one type of bulb and a lot of them, consider how you organize parallel lines, or total chaos, to separate parts of your home and your yard. This strategy ensures that your place doesn't look like mass chaos of lights from the curb unless that's what you're shooting for!

Power Source – There are three main ways to power Christmas lights: electrical outlet, solar, and battery. The most common pair of lights you'll find on the market plug into a standard 120v outlet, the same as your toaster oven. These are typically arranged in most houses around the exterior on a waterproof box that keeps the all-important plug safe and dry. If you don't have one of those, see if there's a plug in your garage that you can tap into. No garage? Then you might want to go solar or battery powered.

Solar-powered Christmas lights come with one or multiple small stakes with a solar pad on the top and a battery banking system inside. This setup allows the panel to pull in sunlight from the atmosphere, convert it into energy, and store it until it's time for the lights to turn on. Many of these systems rely on a timer that turns the lights on and off at night based on the owner's discretion. However, these systems typically won't be capable of running all night and will turn off sometime in the early morning hours.

If no plug-in is available to you and you really need that all-night light solution, battery operated outdoor Christmas lights can make all the difference for you. Just be mindful that you will have to change the batteries fairly often, which can get expensive.

Outdoor Christmas Lights FAQ

Q: What are the brightest outdoor Christmas lights?

A: If you're really looking for maximum impact from standard bulbs, the conical 5 mm wide-angle LED will give you the most brightness for your money.

Q: What outdoor Christmas lights do professionals use?

A: The secret to decorating your house like a pro is basically the same as-is cooking a meal like a chef; the technique is everything. Most professional house decorators do not lean on fancy equipment or special lighting, just traditional methods and some creativity.

Q: When should you turn on your Christmas lights outside?

A: Christmas lights are truly best after dusk and only really good when people are still awake. So if you want to be environmentally conscious, consider placing them on a timer that turns them on shortly after nightfall and then turns them off when you think it's appropriate for your neighborhood.

Q: How do you weatherproof your outdoor Christmas lights?

A: One of the weakest links in your Christmas light string is the plug system. Plugging the end of your lights into a waterproof box will make a big difference. Additionally, when you "pigtail" (meaning plug one string of lights into another), you also create a weak link. To ensure that this connection isn't compromised, your local hardware store should sell something like a plug housing, which looks like a little balloon covering this connection.

Sources:

1. Outdoor Christmas Lighting Tips - DIY Network