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Light Your House Better this Christmas - Lighting Tips from Experts
Christmas lighting displays are a festive holiday addition to your home and a good project for the whole family. Outdoor Christmas lighting schemes can be as small or as large as you like depending on your budget and available space.
Christmas outdoor lighting ideas can follow traditional themes, like colored lights on the eaves of the house or they can feature lighted inflatable holiday figures or even those that move in time to recorded music.
What are the purposes of Christmas Lighting?
Christmas tree lighting can do more than bring a festive element into your living room during the holidays. Trees that are positioned in a key window will become a focal point around which to build an outdoor lighting scheme. This is one time of the year when you don't mind people driving by and looking in your windows!
The holidays are intended to be a celebratory time of the year so your lighting should reflect that energy and convivial atmosphere. Normally lights are placed in such a way as to highlight elements of the house that can be paired with traditional holiday symbols. For instance a low grouping of shrubs could be draped in lighted nets to serve as a backdrop for a "family" of snowmen. The chimney might be outlined in lights to draw the eye to a roof-mounted Santa complete with sleigh and reindeer. Think of the lights as the outline of the holiday image you hope to project in your front yard.
What types of Christmas Lights are Available?
The three most common types of lighting currently in use are icicle lights, ropes, and nets. These holiday lights can use either LED bulbs or the traditional incandescents. Although the LED lights are slightly more expensive, they are much more energy efficient so your December electrical bill won't be a shock when it arrives.
Icicle lights are often attached to roofs and window sills where they can mimic the effect of real icicles hanging off houses. Some can be timed to blink on and off, though like most traditional lights the "blinker" bulb can be removed from the string so it will be continuously lighted.
Christmas rope or string lights are the classic option and often last over many holiday seasons. They are frequently used to outline the slope of the roof or porch and are often wrapped around pillars, columns, or even tree trunks to recreate the look of a candy cane. Many people no use strings of small white lights that can be used at other times of year for parties or other special occasions.
A hint, take the time to use straight staples or other fasteners appropriate to the surface on which the lights are being placed. There's nothing that looks worse than a drooping or crooked string of lights. Straight, well-placed lights look especially sharp at night.
Light nets work extremely well for covering shrubbery. Although it normally takes two people to lift and drape the nets, once they are in place the lights are even and attractive. They are also extremely easy to remove as one unit and store until next year.
Continue to: Information on Outdoor Christmas Lighting
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