When it comes to Christmas lights, many of us like to dress the outside of our homes as well as our Christmas trees. With so many outdoor Christmas lights on the market it can be difficult to know which lights are best suited to your home. Here is a rundown of some of the most popular lights and their benefits.
"We recommend always looking for lead cables between 5-10m long."
- White Stores
Icicle Lights
Icicle lights are a classic for outdoor Christmas lights as, unlike many of the other lights, they do not work inside as well as out. Icicle lights are strictly designed for outdoor use and look best along guttering or along the roof of your house.
There are many versions of icicle lights, but our favourite come from The Winter Workshop. These Icicle lights are the only lights on the market that offer a ‘snowing’ effect as opposed to simply twinkling. They also have copper terminals which will not rust. Although available in several colours we prefer a white or warm white snowing icicle as these are classic snowy colours.
Cluster Lights
Cluster lights can be used indoors and out. Cluster lights look great because they have more lights per metre than any other lights on the market, meaning that you get a bright and full look – great for impressing your neighbours or passers-by.
We believe cluster lights look best around window frames, along rooftops or around front porches or archways. We also believe the many bulbs look best in bright colours like multi-coloured, green or blue.
Tree Lights
Compact Lights look fantastic indoors and outdoors and are mainly designed for Christmas trees. If you have a large outdoor tree or a row of hedges that you like to dress during the Christmas period, we recommend these lights.
Be sure to look for lights with a long lead cable of 10m if you wish to use these lights outdoors so that you can reach the tree or hedges at the end of your garden.
Path Lights
Path lights come in a range of styles including many novelty shapes such as parcels and candy canes. These are an incredibly festive way to light up your front garden during the festive period. The path lights should push gently into the ground in a row along your pathway to light the way to your front door.
We recommend looking for path lights with a lengthy lead cable, depending on how far away your plug socket is from your front door.
Christmas Figures
Outdoor Christmas figures are a particularly enjoyable form of outdoor Christmas lighting. Anything from reindeer to penguins to Santa shapes are a great way to bring Christmas to your garden. Plus, with a range of sizes you can go as big or as small as you like.
We say the bigger the better and believe there is nothing quite as impressive as a bright white, 6ft reindeer in your garden!
Things To Consider
The top things to consider when buying outdoor Christmas lights are:
Lead Cable – Depending on where your nearest plug socket is you need to be aware of how long of a cable between the plug and first bulb/figure you will need. We recommend always looking for lead cables between 5-10m long, so you will always have enough give.
Plug Sockets – Not only is lead length important but so is where you plug in your lights. We suggest always plugging your lights into an indoor socket unless you have a suitably covered outdoor socket that is protected from rainwater and all other elements.
LED Bulbs – If you’re running your outdoor Christmas lights every evening throughout the Christmas period this can cost quite a lot in both energy and money. However, LED bulbs are extremely energy efficient and cost-effective costing as little as 1/14p an hour to run.
