How to Light up Your Garden This Christmas
It’s that time of the year again and the countdown to Christmas is now fully underway. At this point, you’ve may have already been to see your town’s high-street lights be turned on. If this gave you some inspiration to illuminate your own home this winter, here’s what you need to know.
Getting Started
The first thing you should look for when purchasing lights is whether or not they’re for indoor or outdoor use. Any bulb that’s marked for outdoor use only shouldn’t be used indoors and vice versa. This is because it may burn hotter than an indoor bulb, which could raise the chance of an accident occurring. Similarly, if a bulb is marked for indoor use only, it’s likely because it isn’t as durable as it needs to be to cope with adverse weather conditions, like those we can expect in the winter. Before you make any purchase, check the product carefully to ensure you don’t waste your money or worse.
Accessing Your Options
Traditional Christmas lights came in C7 and C9 varieties. The name refers to the length of the bulbs, with C7 lights being 2 inches long while C9 lights are 3 inches long. By today’s standards, both these types of lights are old fashioned and if you’re a younger reader you’re probably more familiar with seeing them in old movies than on the street. You can still find them from specialist outlets though. While they don’t last as long as modern LEDs, they’re still the best way of creating a real authentic kind of Christmas look and remain popular amongst traditionalists.
Saving Money
Don’t get caught up in the holiday spirit when making decisions though. Running all of those older Christmas lights throughout the festive period will be expensive and this is the last time of the year where you want any unnecessary costs. To minimise the impact on your wallet, use LED light fittings like those found over at LED Hut whenever possible. Not only are these much more cost-effective to maintain, the fact that they need less power also helps to contribute to a better environment. If you’re like me and you have a tendency to leave your Christmas lights on overnight, set a timer to turn them off automatically at a certain time.
Let us know what you have planned for your own garden in the comments below.
*This is a collabrative post.
*Outdoor lights photo from Shutterstock.
*Christmas lights background from Shutterstock.
These are great ideas. I just which I had a garden suitable to decorate.
I love the idea of using LED lights to save electricity (and money) for holiday decorating. I use mostly solar lighting outdoors year-round.
We have some lights in the garden but I wish we had some more in the run up to Christmas….especially as it gets so dark so early.
I have never put lights up in the garden but may do this year!
I love the light that comes from LED its different! I have battery ones wrapped around my bed like a child! gotta love fairy lights!
I would love to have someone to come and do the outdoor lightening professionally for the festive season, I love Christmas lights but I prefer them subdued and classy.xx
I don’t use outdoor lights but we do sell them in work and it is shocking how many people don’t bother to check if they have the right bulbs for indoor or outdoor!
Thanks for sharing this hun.
I have a thing for christmas lights – Off to enter the comp right now 😀
Whoop Whoop
Charlotte x
thanks for the tips I have never put lights outdoors and may try this year.
I’m hoping to decorate our home this year for Christmas. I really love the holidays and this time of the year.
I can regularly be found drooling over the light up Christmas figures in garden centres! I wish I could afford them all! xx
I love lights all over the house at christmas! I think a few of ours could do with upgrading to LCDs though!
I always put little fairy lights in my plant pots on the balcony to make it look festive. I actually really like the star light from your photo.
I have a very strict rule in our house when it comes to Christmas lights – they must be white! I’m a misery guts but I can’t stand flashing, coloured lights!
We have fun with lights inside but as no one can see into our garden except us we don’t do much outside, it just seems a bit of a waste. I do enjoy looking at other people’s decorations though.
Fab tips. I am looking forward to lighting up our garden once the wind dies down!
I don’t put up lights outside. A big lantern is all I have for my outdoor decorating.
It’s important to remember all these tips. Thanks for the reminders!
Outdoor Christmas lights are so beautiful. I wish we do light ours up but I doubt we would.
I want lights on the house and in the garden but hubby won’t let me :0(
I’d love to add lights outside our house but we are limited to sockets so need to look into battery options. Great tips
What a great idea. We don’t do many lights outside, but is is very pretty!
It’s so important to make sure you have the right kind of lights for outdoors! We haven’t done our decorating yet this year.
Great points – I wish I could cover my house in outside lights at Christmas, I love them! Kaz x
I have no idea what a C7 or a C9 is but I do love Christmas lights 😉
I can’t wait to get ours up this year x
I think lights in a garden do look nice over the Christmas period and just make it look a bit more magical and colourful.
Great post!
If I had a garden I would definitely be lighting it up. I love seeing people decorate their houses and then seeing them all lit up when it is dark x
Outdoor lights at Christmas time are so magical, like a winter wonderland. I’ve noticed the shift from the older glass bulbs to LEDs over the last couple of years, I completely agree that the older ones make for more traditional glow. I’m always looking for excuses to not have to take them down in January! x
We have not put the lights up yet, but they are out of the attic. It’s a start. 😉
We were looking at Christmas lights this afternoon. I just need to check which ones are working when I get them down from the loft before planning this year’s display.
That is the one thing I dread every year – checking and finding the bulbs that don’t work. x
Lights in a garden are so pretty and at this time of year they can seem so magical. I love little lights in tree’s as well. Glorious.
Wish we had a garden we do have a deck and I decorate it a bit just not with Christmas lights. I have a reef and I have a statute of a dog that I change it into different outfits every holiday. Right now the dog statue is wearing a Santa hat. I have to re arrange my living room before we put our tree up. I couldn’t imagine the electric bill for people who put a ton of lights up every year but we do like driving around and looking at all of the pretty lights in the area.
During this time of the year – I really hope we had a garden. It would really be so beautiful to have lights up on it! Wonderful.