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‘Tis the season to hang Christmas lights but make sure you’ve considered the following.
Type
Do you want incandescent Christmas lights or LED Christmas lights for your holiday display? If you’re concerned about energy costs and longevity, LED Christmas lights are the best option. LED Christmas lights also provide truer colour for multicolour lights. However, incandescent Christmas lights produce a warmer, brighter glow, and they are less expensive. Incandescent Christmas lights are a good option for budget-minded shoppers.
Power Source
Traditional Christmas lights plug into an electrical outlet. When using plug-in Christmas lights outdoors, you’ll probably need an extension cord.
Battery-operated Christmas lights often have a built-in timer. While you don’t have to worry about extension cords with battery-operated Christmas lights, you will need a place for the battery box in your display. Battery-operated Christmas lights typically work best for designs that are close to the ground.
Style
Christmas lights come in a variety of styles to fit every holiday aesthetic.
- String Lights: The most common and traditional option for Christmas lights are string lights. A strand with multiple bulbs, string lights are ideal for winding around trees, columns, and posts. You can also outline windows and doors with string lights.
- Net Lights: Net lights are many strands of string lights woven together to form a net. Net lights are ideal for draping over bushes or roofs for a uniform look—a quick and easy way to create your display without the hassle of laying out individual strands.
- Rope Lights: Rope lights are LED bulbs inside clear tubing. Rope lights work well for outlining windows, doors, and walkways. You can also wind rope lights into shapes and designs.
- Icicle Lights: A long strand of Christmas lights with shorter, hanging strands, icicle lights mimic the look of icicles. Ideal for lining gutters or the tops of windows.
- Laser Projection: The quickest way to set up a holiday display is laser projection. Laser Christmas lights project a variety of holiday images or brightly coloured patterns right onto your home’s exterior or the trees in your yard.
Color
Christmas lights also come in a variety of colours. White and multicolour Christmas lights are the most common, but you can also find lights in single shades, such as red, green, or blue.
White Christmas lights are elegant and traditional. Some homeowners find multicolour Christmas lights to be more festive, however. Single-color Christmas lights are ideal for blocking off particular areas to create a dramatic display.
Bulb Spacing
The bulbs on string lights are spaced at different intervals. Christmas lights with wide spaces between the bulbs work well for wrapping around thin trees, poles, columns, and banisters. Christmas lights with smaller gaps between the bulbs are best for draping loosely over trees and bushes or for outlining a roof, window, or door.
This article originally appeared on www.bhg.com
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