Christmas lighting can add to the joyful holiday festivities with houses decorated in all their splendor.
Christmas lighting with brightly colored lights can make a beautiful house much more beautiful but it needs to be done right.
We have all seen houses decorated with Christmas lights in such a way that make a nice house look like an absolute mess.
To understand design it is more important to see mistakes and badly decorated homes than it is to see the well decorated.
There is no reason for social status to be reflected.
I would say this is a bit overdone but it is NOT sloppy like the examples below. A lot of care went into this. Some people may not like this but this is actually the best house in this post.
I don’t mean to put a wet blanket on the spirit of Christmas but I have seen some very bad or should I say SLOPPY Christmas decorating. In most cases the bad Christmas decorating is usually on the unkept homes in the not so nice neighborhoods but there are always exceptions. When seeing sloppy Christmas lighting as with a sloppy house and bad landscaping with no pride of ownership, one wonders how bad the house looks on the interior – not to mention a sloppy looking homeowner.
This year I will take photos of good and bad decorations and add the photos to this page. For now, here is a listing of dos and don’ts to help you do your best to show off that holiday spirit. Click on the image to enlarge.
Christmas Lighting Dos & Don’ts
- First thing is don’t light up too early. It’s kind of ok if you are a business but there’s no need to light up until December 5 – the eve of St. Nicholas Day.
- Don’t take down those lights too early. All that work decorating! Keep the Christmas spirit alive until January 6 – Epiphany at the earliest. I would even go a week or two later. Just because they stop playing Christmas music on the radio Dec. 25th EXACTLY at midnight does not mean that Christmas is over and it’s time to decorate for Valentine’s Day. It’s really just the beginning of the Christmas season. In some European countries decorations are taken down February 2 – Candlemas Day.
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There is a “P” “P” lit up on the second floor windows. What does that mean?
Be consistent. Use the same type/size of lighting. Don’t use large bulbs in one place and smaller bulbs in another place.
- Multi colored bulbs are good as are solid colors. But it’s best not to mix solid and multi colored bulbs unless you really know what you’re doing. If outlining a house (eaves and windows) lights must all be the same for when painting the trim your eaves and window casing would have to be the same color. Choose multi-colored or one single color only for outlining architecture. When painting your house you wouldn’t have multi-colored trim so why do it now if you want the best look.
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Don’t mix cool and warm lights. Also please put them on straight.
Using white/clear lighting? Most new clear LED bulbs produce cool light. These lights have an ugly bluish tint. Know what you are buying. Clear warm lights are best and create a more pleasing feel. Some LED’s come in warm light but they are still not as warm as traditional lights. NEVER mix cool lights with warm lights. However I did see them mixed in a certain way that looked great. I wouldn’t attempt doing this yourself though.
What happened to the rest of the porch lights?
- If you don’t have enough lights, get more. Don’t just stop in the middle of the porch. Try to use some common sense.
- If you want to put lights on your porch railing and the steps separate the railing into two sections, you can extend the lights across at the bottom of the steps to go up to the next railing. When doing this you must replace the bulbs with dead bulbs or cover them with black tape in the area that should appear unlit at the base of the steps. Don’t just continue the lit strand all the way across. This looks sloppy. Same thing for windows.
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Please don’t do this! We are living in a civilized society – Surprise!
Outlining your window? Seriously people – don’t allow a stream of lights to be visible from the outlet to the window or from window to window. Replace those bulbs with dead bulbs or black tape to keep it neat. This house looks very sloppy and the viewer may wonder if the interior of the house and residents are just as sloppy. Just imagine what the homeowners look like!
These trees are lit beautifully!
- White lights around a deciduous tree? Lights should be wrapped around each branch to look as beautiful as the trees in the picture above. This is difficult to do and expensive when done by a professional. The results are amazing though! Be careful if you just wrap lights around the tree instead of the branches for it really won’t look good. Best to skip this part.
Netting only covering part of the bushes, two different colors of lights on the porch eave and some sort of mess on the 2nd floor windows.
- Lighting that comes in a net are convenient. Make sure they fit the shrub you are covering. Only covering half just for the sake of doing it does not look good.
These guys decorate their house like they look.
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Do you really think this looks good?
Stores sell lot’s of decorations. Just because they sell them doesn’t mean you have to buy them.
Even if you did not come from a trailer park – just because the kids like it doesn’t mean you have to do this to your neighborhood.
- Do not us inflatable yard decorations. They are cheap and tacky looking. I once listened to a radio show where people called in and passionately said how they hate them in their neighborhood. I agree and fortunately there are none on my street!
- The use of a single spotlight on your front door may be all you need. Simple, yet elegant. Don’t use a colored spotlight though.
- Don’t use plastic bows. They look super cheap. Use felt covered (flocked) bows only. Yes, they will hold up in the rain. I’ve been using the same bows for years.
- Candles in windows? Use clear warm bulbs only. No LED, colored, or worse yet multi-colored.
- Blinking lights? Usually blinkers stay off more than they’re on. Use twinkling and make sure all your light strands do the same.
Do not use colored light bulbs.
Lamppost and porch light. Do NOT put a colored bulb in your light.
Laser projection lighting.
Laser projection lighting? These are slide projectors which cast moving shapes onto your house.
Stick with clear snowflake type like the above only. Stay from tacky colors or projected images like in the photo above.
This is one of the sloppy house winners. notice the window on the right
“But it’s for the children” I see so many people use excuses saying “it’s for the children”. What a stupid comment. If a person has a lack of decorating ability or decorating sense, it’s not an excuse to blame on an innocent child. Of course children love bright shinny stuff that attracts their attention. I would hope that a parent would try to inspire good taste for their children to learn in hope they wouldn’t do any of the above when they grow up. Teach them to appreciate good design as you would instill proper table manners. When grown they will display good breeding. Really though it’s not such a matter of bad decoration but SLOPPY decoration. If you can button your shirt straight you should be able to at least try to put the lights on straight.
Christmas lighting can add to the joy of the holiday season as a well kept house can add to the beauty of the neighborhood. There is sloppy Christmas decorating just like there is sloppy landscaping and sloppy looking people. Just because it is Christmas should not make it acceptable. Decorating is decorating. Some people are better at decorating their living room and matching colors and some people are not. That is why there are designers that know what to look for to get the best look. I hope seeing these examples can help homeowners get some ideas and improve the curb appeal of their homes and neighborhoods. Hopefully you can see mistakes and learn from them.
Here is a very good example. Notice how neat the house looks.
House is outlined with Christmas lights that are straight and neat looking. Does not look like the homeowner was drunk when decorating. Shrubs have net lighting that covers the full shrub. VERY neat and tasteful. Credit of this photo is from Christmas Light Source – Design Guidelines. Check out their info on design guidelines.
Way over the top! Not sloppy though.
We all know the famous Griswald house and movie. What are my thoughts on this? Yes it is over the top but it shows more organization that the other houses here. I say go-for-it!
Giant Salt-Lick for Santa’s reindeer.
Then for those of us that are animal-friendly, why not get a giant salt-lick for your roof. While Santa is in your parlor decorating your tree, his reindeer and have a party.
My favorite is a spotlight on the front door with a tasteful wreath and, if you want to go totally wild, a wreath for each of the windows on the front of the house. That’s it. Does that make me Scrooge? I have to admit that I don’t even do any of that, though I appreciate seeing it done. Our front door is on the side of the house but we put our tree in the picture window in front.
I wish I could take a better evening photo of our Christmas lights. They are understated and serene. Candles in all of the windows. Large green wreath on the door with mini white lights. A green garland swag down the railing, again with the mini white lights and the piece de resistance, a white light “Bethlehem Star” hanging in the parade balcony. Everything is battery-powered warm white LED lights with automatic timers. I only have one cord for the star.
I do defy one of your rules, I mix colored and white mini lights on our tree. The white lights brighten it up and just a few tiny colored bulbs make it sparkle with all of the old glass ornaments and yes, tinsel.
I hate the LED Christmas lights. The light cast is too garish, harsh and cheap. I’ll stick with the C9 ceramic incandescent bulbs.
LED lights use much less voltage; I feel safer using them, but I use mini LEDs so they are not garishly bright. Way back, using “standard” minis, I melted a switch, and that scared the bejeebers out of me.
I enjoy your site and usually agree with your comments and share them with others (mostly when I need support to recommend that they fix the mess they made with big box “solutions”.) For those who are not artistic, this is a good guide. As an artist, designer and all around winter holiday fanatic, I do have to disagree with some of this post for my own personal decor.
I do mix light sizes, colors and types with great success—but I’m a designer, so, there’s that. ha ha. I do love your suggestion of using “burned out” bulbs for areas where you don’t want to see the excess lights. Oh, yeah, no blow up things … ugh. I lean toward no bows at all. I think decor can be super effective with the right amount of thought (something most have little time for these days) and some patience (even less of that floating around). Being a ridiculous obsessive, I can’t sit still for very long.
I’ll add that one of the most impressive holiday light decorations I have ever seen mixed lights like crazy. It was a small weeping tree (I think it was a cherry tree about 15 feet tall) that was literally engulfed by lights. The lights began on the ground, emulating the surface roots of the tree, and wound gently around the trunk, up into the branches and hung down at the ends, following the trees natural shape. Each “strand” of lights was a different color and size and followed the tree in stripes from root to branch tip. There must have been 20 or more color and shape variations. It was very intense and took the artist who created it roughly 2 weeks to complete.
I applaud the suggestion that decorations remain throughout the 12 days of Christmas until January 6, the official start of Epiphany. But turning them on December 7 seems a bit arbitrary. As long as they are going on early, why not December 5, the Eve of Saint Nicholas Day, when some of our children are expecting him to arrive with treats?
Dec 5th is a good idea. I changed it.
I’m looking into solar lights this year. It may be a different quality of light, but I really love the energy-saving aspect. Will see how they pan out…
The result you will get with solar lighting will look very bad. The amount of electric used in a strand of lights is hardly anything. Stay away from outdoor solar lights – they look trashy.
We have a wreath lit with small white lights hung centered on each 8’0″ section of porch railing and a single, flickering candle in each window. It apparently looks nice because, if we’re outside, people driving by will slow down to say so. This year we see a couple houses, on our street, doing something very similar. We’re hoping, eventually, more will switch from the “don’ts” Ken wrote about.
We have a clear lighted wreath with a red flocked bow on our front door. The wreath is lighted with clip-on battery powered candles (they turn on and off with a remote control — not LED). We also have a three foot tree with clear lights and a red flocked bow on either side of our front door. A clear lit candle in each window finishes it off. My Mum started all this. Neither of my parents could stand tacky Christmas lights. I inherited this attitude. When I drive around looking at Christmas lights I fantasize about shooting the inflatables. I calm myself with the thought that, “some kid loves that thing.”
My neighborhood has excellent taste, but I have to admit that I love driving around those that don’t. There’s an exuberance that makes me laugh! The most beautiful decoration I’ve seen recently is my neighbor’s massive front lawn that sweeps down and up to their home that’s flanked by massive trees. Along one section of the lawn they have netting which is absolutely magical when it snows and the lights twinkle beneath. I’m very low key: a lit wreath, lights in the upper windows and a tree visible from the front. I usually choose all white or all coloured lights depending how I feel that year!
I was looking for something like this.I found it quite interesting, hopefully, you will keep posting such blogs.Keep sharing.Thank you
I enjoyed reading this and laughed at some of the pictures!. My husband, kids, and myself like driving around to look at how people have decorated for Christmas. We score them on a scale from 1-10. It’s fun and we also get ideas for our own home. I personally like decorating with warm white lights outside and for our tree.
Happy Decorating!
Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and good taste in your blog. I was searching for decorating ideas for white icicle lights with snowflakes on the end, used together with C9 multicolored bulbs, if that’s even possible. I, too, hate inflatables, lazy lighting, and just plain old bad taste. Which I freely admit, it may be bad taste on my own part to consider mixing my lights this way. It does seem possible, though, to use them on the same house without the result being bad.
My house is small and I’m only lighting the front. There’s an ‘A’ shaped awning over the porch, which is almost center of the front. I’m thinking of putting the multicolored bulbs – 2 strings- on either side of the awning; the warm white icicle/snowflake lights along the awning, which would center them. I also have a single large white snowflake that usually goes in the center of that awning. Please advise? Thanks again, & Merry Christmas!
Hi Anna – It’s very hard to visualize what you have. The only thing I can suggest is that you send me a photo at dusk or night and I will give you some ideas for next year. (I will not post it on my website) Just thinking – it would be cool if I could do renderings of houses with added Xmas lights. No idea how to do that – not yet at least.
Do you prefer larger bulbs on houses or mini bulbs?
I love the idea of a larger vintage bulb, but if they aren’t all facing the same direction because the string isn’t taut…they look so askew and floppy.
Also…what’s up with the LED bulbs being a cheap and semi-opaque shell? They look so wrong up close! Lights should be in a clear glass shell. Why do they come this way?
I find that mini lights are more tasteful in practice, and look their best if they are hung with an ever so slight drape in between each clip.
Love the idea about using dead bulbs in strings to perfect your angles! I’m stealing this trick.
My husband wants to switch to LEDs, as he’s very energy conscious. But I really love the colors on my older lights, and don’t know how to tell him that the bigger energy bill is going to be worth it.
Things are constantly changing. I think the LED’s will improve with a warmer white. Maybe next year. I like the large and small lights but yes the large sometimes face the wrong way. A lot more work to make them look nice. I’M really surprised how lighting has improved in the last 5 years. I think we just need to give it all more time.
LEDs will never be as pleasant on our eyes as incandescent.
I don’t know if you’re still taking questions and replying but I need some help in finding the right kind of spotlight to use on my front door. I too HATE those cold LED lights!!! I only love to use the warm clear lights. I want to use just a spotlight on my front door this year to show off the wreath I plan on using. I like to think that I have good taste when it comes to decorating….less is more as the saying goes. I want to use a spotlight, like the ones my parents used, when we were kids, I’m 64 now, but I am having a hard time even finding anything decent. All are all so bright and cold and LED!! I’ve gone to Home Depot, Lowes, etc, I’ve gone online looking, but still nothing. I do hope you can help me or guide me in the right direction. OMGosh I was laughing so much when I saw those pictures you posted of some very badly decorated houses. It’s like no thought goes into what they’re doing!!
Hi Debra – what you plan to do sounds great. This is good info for I did not know you are not able to get a traditional spot light. I still have old spot lights. Today LED’s are the way to go however there should be options to still have that warm look traditional bulbs had. I know some bulbs can also be regulated via an app. Here is some info I found. I would give one a try and if you don’t like it take it back but I would also call the manufacturer’s customer service line to find out if they have a better option and if not complain that they don’t have a good traditional tone. Color temperature
Apart from brightness, you also have to consider the color of the bulbs. This is typically denoted by a Kelvin rating (usually 2,700 to 6,500) and accompanied by a descriptive name, such as soft white or daylight.
Here’s a breakdown of light bulb color temperature:
Soft white (2,700 to 3,000 Kelvin) is warm and yellow, the typical color range you get from incandescent bulbs. This light gives a warm and cozy feeling and is often best for living rooms, dens and bedrooms.
Warm white (3,000 to 4,000 Kelvin) is more yellowish-white. These bulbs are best suited for kitchens and bathrooms.
Bright white (4,000 to 5,000 Kelvin) is between white and blue tones. With a less cozy and more energetic feel, bulbs with this color range are best for work spaces (such as a home office or garage) and kitchens with chrome fixtures.
Daylight (5,000 to 6,500 Kelvin) has a more bluish tone. This light color will maximize contrast for colors, making it ideal for working, reading or applying makeup.
Oh, my Goodness… Light above the 4,000k range is the Worst on the human eye.. Especially for detail work. Why do you say that?
How can anyone in lighting promote the use of LED lighting? They are Horrible. First.. Not pleasant to the human eyes… Nor healthy! And, they Never look ‘natural’. Look at your photos… In None of the photos with LED lighting is the bulb clear. LED tend to distort going into the human eye. Just like the difference of a landscape photo taken with a digital camera and one using film. No comparison.
The human eye and Psyche does not enjoy Blaring light. Why are you promoting that very thing.
LP Russell
Thank you soooo much for your comments about tacky inflatables. We live in an upper middle class neighborhood. Only 1 house, thank goodness, not on our street, and a ways down the hill from us, has at least 20-30 inflatables on their large property. Not only Santa’s, Snowmen, Elves etc, but a Darth Vader and a Dinosaur. Yes! Really! This is NOT made up.
The evil side of me wants to get in my husband’s black SUV at 2am and shoot at them with a BB gun….at least the Darth Vader and the Dinosaur.
Our place is a colonial Cape Cod with electric candles in the windows and a spotlight on the tasteful wreath on our front door.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Hi – yes I totally hear you. I once listened to a talk radio show and people were calling in. The hatred towards these inflatables was unbelievable. I totally understand that kids like them but the kids would like them inside the house if they could fit too. This might be a good opportunity for the parents to show their kids a more tasteful compromise? I don’t know – I don’t have kids to provide a good answer.
Would love to circle back on the question of where to get quality incandescent lights. I’m looking for warm white tree blankets to wrap a deciduous specimen in a private courtyard. The lighting is meant to serve a dual purpose of looking festive as well as in raising the temperature a degree or two as extra protection when we dip below 32F in our USDA zone 9b. I also promise I won’t put a giant inflatable star on top of the tree….
Where can I get well made holiday string lights that don’t die before the season is even over? My grandparents had the same sets of lights for decades that worked fine. But most everything nowadays is made cheaply. What we can find at Home Depot is made in China and never lasts, no matter how gingerly you handle them. There have to be some reputable manufacturers of Christmas lights but I haven’t found them. Help?
Hello! I loved this post, it made me chuckle so many times.
I was wondering if you have an opinion on the best way to do multi color lights. I want to do twinkling multi color lights along the eaves, multi color pathway markers up to the door (like those oversized light bulb markers) but I’m struggling on what to do for the bushes and wreath. I’m not sure if multi color lights for those two things would be over kill but then soft white doesn’t look right in my head.
Any advice would be amazing, thank you!
Multi colored lights on the eaves are good but you need to do all facing the front of the house. If you have more lights than you need conceal them so it doesn’t look sloppy. If the eave/house is multi then make the bushes one color from the multi colors. Choose red for example or white but the white must be the same white. This way the bushes stand on their own.
Are there any circumstances I can use Cool White and warm lights outside and on my Xmas tree? Any pics?
Good question but I kind of doubt it for as with paint colors it is rare to be able to mix a cool and warm color.
Thank You for this post! You answered all of the questions I have been asking myself for years!
Marry Christmas Everyone
I have decorated our tree and the inside of the house with warm white lights but we have the led cool white on the outside. We have a picture window that I’m thinking of putting the tree in front of but am worried the mix of lights inside/out will be tacky looking. Thoughts?
To be honest I’m really not sure. You will need to test it out. It may work since the warm lights are not mixed but on the interior and framed by cool lights.
I’m sure and I’m an artist. It will look very nice and the tree will pop, as it should, if you don’t want it to get lost in the rest of the decor. And anyway, you should always do what is pleasing to YOU. And remember “tastes” change, and what was considered the ultimate in sophistication becomes laughable in a surprisingly short time.
I guess it all depends on where you come from.
I’d love to know what your recommendations are for hanging lights on an old house (i.e. what kind of hardware). I want to light our three story Dutch colonial in San Francisco, but am not sure how to do it without risking the integrity of the wood. Command strips haven’t worked except in a few areas. Thanks!
Good point. You can use clips for lights but that is for white aluminum gutters. I really don’t know of a safer option. There are a lot of companies that do Xmas lighting. I would see what they have to say.