Choosing The Best Type Of Christmas Outdoor Lighting

When you are thinking about Christmas outdoor lighting, you have to take into account a number of things- what theme or style you will arrange your yard as, making a plan, what kind of lighting to use, where to buy your supplies from and how to install it all.

We are looking at the different types of outdoor Christmas lights around. These include the traditional lights string using C7 or C9 bulbs, fairy of mini lights,rope lights, net lights, shimmer spheres and animated light displays.

C7 or C9 Christmas Lights

These are the most common Christmas light strings around, and consists of a cord with a number of sockets on it (up to 150 sockets), each socket has a light bulb. C7 refers to 2 inch bulbs and C9 refers to 3 inch bulbs. The reason these strings are so popular is that the bulbs are bright and very visible. The bulbs are arranged so that if one fails then the rest of the string stays alight. This can be a big advantage once the Christmas lights are up and running! C7 and C9 bulbs are available in a range of different colors, you can choose the length of the string and the color combination of the bulbs to suit your needs. The standard incandescent C7 and C9 bulbs are quite expensive to run, but it is now possible to get then same bulb shape fitted with LEDs. This give a long lasting, energy efficient and cool to the touch bulb. Some of the LED versions are color changing for a really special effect. Twinkle style lighting is also available.

These are string lights with very small bulbs, bulbs can be clear, white or colored. The color of the Christmas lights string can be selected to match the place they are to be placed, colors available are usually white, green or brown. Mini Christmas lights generally come in cords with 50 or 100 lights, although it is possible to get up to 300 on one string. Fairy lights can be almost any color to suit your needs, and can be programmed to have different lighting patterns such as twinkle or flashing, some can operate to music! Battery operated sets or solar outdoor Christmas lights strings are also available as mini lights. One of the disadvantages of incandescent mini lights is that when one bulb fails it takes out either the section or the whole string. It is more common these days for the bulbs to be LEDs, it makes it so much easier to maintain as the bulbs last a long time.Outdoor Christmas icicle lights are a kind of mini light.

These outdoor Christmas lights look superb using white lights mounted in trees.

Outdoor Christmas rope lights are long lasting LEDs mounted inside a vinyl pipe. This makes a "rope" full of lights that are easy to hang and easy to store, ideal for many installations. The vinyl protects the lights, which can not be changed, which is why LEDs are used with their very long life. Rope lights come in a variety of colors and special effects.

A net of lights is basically a mesh of interconnected mini LED lights. Nets are excellent for draping over shrubbery or bushes, giving a perfectly spaced look to the lighting. Solar outdoor Christmas lights can be nets. Net lights are availble with clear or colored lights.

Shimmer spheres or ball are a very magical ball of light. They are made of 100 mini lights connected into a ball. They come in at several different sizes and many colors, some are twinkling. Have a look. I have even seen a Stars and Stripes version.

Animated feature lights are available in many different shapes from reindeer to Nativity scenes. They are made of wire frames outlining the shape then surrounded with mini LED lights of colors  to suit the shape, so angels could be white or the lights arranged to give a colored angel. Some shapes are configured to actually move.

Ultimately you will need to choose the kind of lighting to suit your theme, and most likely a combination of different lights will give you a great display for your outdoor Christmas Lighting.