While we still appreciate incandescent lights of various shapes and sizes as they previously were the only real options businesses and homeowners had for lighting up the season around Christmas time, we have another favorite for you to try on for size! The market has moved to LED outdoor Christmas lights, and there’s just as much variety in these - if not more.
Let’s take a look at some of the main categories of outdoor Christmas lights that are out there.
Traditional C9 Christmas Lights
Traditional C9 Christmas lights are cone-shaped lights that have a wide body and an E17 base. These are the lights most people think of when they think of retro Christmas lights.
Conventionally, C9 bulbs have been incandescent but modern replacements are LEDs, although the size, shape, and effect of these lights are basically the same. LED C9 bulbs are still available in white as well as in multicolor arrangements, sport the same aesthetics, and produce the same warm glow.
Traditional C9-style Christmas lights are great for general purpose applications. Our favorite application is to light the roofline and eaves of your home to create a magical display. They can also be used to light exterior garlands, bushes, shrubbery, trees, and even added into your Christmas tree designs for another profile.
Mini Christmas Lights (5mm Bulbs)
Mini 5mm Christmas lights are the LED replacement to conventional incandescent string lights that in the past were everyone’s all-purpose Christmas lights.
We typically recommend these lights, which are available in a wide range of colors, are useful for many interior and exterior applications.
Inside, they make perfect string lights for lighting the tree, and they look wonderful when wrapped around wreaths, garlands, and other Christmas greenery, too.
Outside, they can be used to trim greenery and to wrap trees, as well as to decorate windows, entryways, columns, mailboxes, fences, pedestals, and so much more.
(Photography via Brad Holler)
G12 Lights
Sometimes also referred to as orb or globe lights, G12 lights are tiny lights with a small, round bulb, slightly larger than a 5mm LED but much smaller than a C9.
This makes G12 Christmas lights suitable for use in lots of applications in which either 5mm or C9 bulbs might be used. These lights can be used for any of the applications mentioned so far and are fun when added into your prelit trees and greenery as well. This provides another profile which can create interest and dimension.
Available in warm white, cool white, and many other colors, G12 Christmas lights can be used indoors and outdoors for a wide range of creative applications.
Cluster Lights
Our Cluster Lights offer incredible value and have a whole lot of uses! They can be used to decorate garlands, wreaths, and other Christmas greenery, both indoors and outdoors. They can even be used to decorate small trees!
Also, these lights are long-lasting (50,000 hours!) and are programmable, with 7 functional controls (plus steady on, for 8 total), are connectable end-to-end, and come with a timer function.
But maybe the best part is that these lights are tough. Not even Santa’s boot could crush them. We actually like to let our customers try to break these lights in our store - none have done it yet!
Icicle Lights
You probably need no introduction to icicle lights - you know what they are, string lights that run down extended runs from the main strand, which, when stretched along a line, hang down like “icicles.”
These sorts of outdoor Christmas lights are immensely popular for decorating windows, garages, eaves, and other overhangs, giving the impression of an illuminated string of icicles.
One of the great things about icicle lights is that they’re fun and easy to hang - you can get the installation done without professional assistance, making it a fun family activity.
Net Lights
Net lights are interwoven strings of lights that are just what they sound like - broad nets, rather than strings. They are somewhat more specialized than the other outdoor Christmas lights mentioned in this list and have only one real application: decorating shrubs and bushes. Net lights are easy to install and can be used to cover a wide surface area almost effortlessly.
Rope Lights
Although not specifically a type of outdoor Christmas light, rope lights are sometimes used around Christmas time to light up walkways, pathways, decks, or docks.
They provide relief and ambient illumination, and when used to augment outdoor area lighting, can improve the mood and safety of a space, too - especially when lit in red and green, or to support your other outdoor lights!
Are LED Outdoor Christmas Lights Better?
In perusing a catalog of modern outdoor Christmas lighting, you will see that most of what the market offers nowadays is LED, or light-emitting diode, technology.
You may have grown up with incandescent lights, and wonder if the new stuff is genuinely better. LED lights are the preferred option of all professional lighting installers. Here’s why:
- Variety in color temperature: Common early complaints about LED Christmas lights were that they didn’t offer the same warm glow of incandescent bulbs. That was true, once upon a time, and early LEDs generally produced a harsh, cold white. However, modern LEDs can produce any color or color temperature under the rainbow, from red and green to a soft, warm, lambent white.
- Durability: Incandescent bulbs have filaments that can burn out and bulbs that can shatter. LEDs are solid-state lights, or SSLs, that have no filaments to burn out or bulbs to break. They are hands-down the toughest lights on the market, indoors or outdoors.
- Consistency and reliability in the cold: Some lights are inconsistent in extreme cold, and slow to start up or warm up to their full output brightness. LEDs are consistent in both extreme temperatures and wet conditions.
- Longevity: Many LED Christmas lights are rated to 50,000 hours or more, ten times or more longer than even the longest-lasting incandescent lights. This means they will last for many, many years (when properly cared for and stored) even when used outdoors.
- Energy efficiency: LED lights consume only a tiny fraction of the energy that old-school Christmas lights do. This justifies a higher upfront cost, and even so, the price of LEDs have dropped dramatically in recent years. This makes them more affordable not only to buy, but to operate.
Your BEST Christmas Ever Starts Here!
Here for inspiration for next year’s outdoor Christmas lighting display? Take a look through our catalog to find some ideas that will kickstart your creative genius. There are Christmas lights here for any setting to make your home for the holidays beautiful!