Do-it-youself instructions 
Hanging Holiday Lights in Trees
Outdoor Lights–Not Just in Pines Anymore
One of the most challenging spots to place Christmas lights is in outdoor trees. For years people have placed lights on their smaller outdoor pines, but increasingly trees of every shape and size are being adored with blazing holiday lights.
Getting Christmas Lights Up There
Hanging holiday lights on trees, especially very tall ones, can be pretty tricky. If you check around the internet you’ll find lots of ingenious ways to get your lights up there–some that are practical and some that we wouldn’t recommend trying.
One suggestion is to get the longest pole you can find and place three nails in the tip of it in a V shape. Then thread the light string around the nails to hold them in place and hoist them up, placing the light in the tree and then releasing them from the pole. This method works fairly well but is a bit cumbersome. It can be quite difficult to manage a pole of a set length.
Yet another solution is to rely on a telescopic tree pruner. This method is quite popular in the Chicago suburbs where year after year enthusiastic tree trimmers raise their lights into the sky attached to these tools. Fairly effective, this method’s biggest disadvantage is the investment required to purchase a pruner.
Some websites we came across suggested throwing lights into the tree. We found this method to be very hit or miss and to result in lights that become very tangled and difficult to remove from the tree after the holidays. Ditto for attaching Christmas lights to a softball and tossing them into the tree–unless of course, you’re ability to control a softball toss is better than ours.
Yet another method is the tried and true practice of using a ladder. A fine solution, this only becomes a problem when the tree you’re working on is much taller than your ladder or when ice and snow make the support surface for your ladder treacherous.
Safe & Sure with a Holiday Decorating Company
The safest and surest bet for really high trees is to hire a holiday decorating company to do this task for you. Many of these companies opt to use a commercial-style bucket truck to safely reach even the highest branches. Such a choice can be costly, but it’s certainly safer than taking your chances and being electrocuted as one gentleman in Palo Alto, CA was when he missed his target and entangled his lights in live power lines.
Christmas Light Installation: A Beginner’s Guide
Hanging Exterior Christmas Lights Can Be Easy
If you celebrate Christmas and live in a private home, chances are that you will, at some point, want to make the season more festive by hanging Christmas lighting outside. Contrary to what many people believe, learning how to hang Christmas lights isn’t difficult. Here are some tips to get you started.
Getting Ready
It’s best to find someone to help you rather than undertaking a Christmas light installation project on your own. However, if you cannot find one, hang a receptacle (either a basket or a bucket with a handle) from a nail or an “S” hook on your ladder. This will limit the number of times you need to climb up and down from the roof during the course of your work. Carefully scrutinizing all of your exterior Christmas lights before you–and, if available, your assistant–ascend the ladder is also a good idea. Ensure that all lights are operable and have no frayed areas in the cords prior to carrying them up the ladder with you.
Starting At The Top
One of the most important things to remember when doing a Christmas light installation is to finish each piece of the project before starting on another. Otherwise, you may miss something important and will find yourself re-taking steps you thought you had already completed in the course of installing Christmas lighting outside. Start with the roof line. You can run an extension cord through a window or plug it into an exterior outlet and running it from there to the roof line, keeping it as close to the house as possible and making certain that the outlet is not exposed to rain, snow, and sprinkler water. Then, install fasteners or holders over which to drape the extension cord or cords and the strings of exterior Christmas lights themselves. Space all fasteners uniformly, and ensure that they hold up to 10 pounds.
The Hang of It
Once the fasteners or holders have been installed, it’s time hang your exterior Christmas lights. Starting at the power source, “follow” the fasteners across to the other side of the line. Suspend an individual string, then plug in the next string, then the next, etc. Never plug all the strings together to speed things up, as it will result in a mess of tangled light strings. Finally, double-check that the light string cords of all Christmas lights outside are secure in/on the fastener and cannot be knocked off the roof. Do the columns on your home next, interspersing light strings with natural or artificial holiday garland. Removable tacky clay, placed behind the string garden, will help adhesion here. Loop light strings under and over the railing of your porch, and–with the same peel-and-stick fasteners you used on the roof, along the top of the porch enclosure. Done! See, learning how to hang Christmas lights, and doing a Christmas light installation on your own, isn’t as difficult as you thought. Enjoy your handiwork!
Hanging Holiday Lights Indoors
Christmas light installation inside your home? Nothing to it!
Indoor Christmas lights are a great complement to Christmas trees and add a hearty dose of festivity to your home at holiday time. Christmas light installation is not only a fairly simple job; it can be a fun, very creative project as well. Just think how many different places there are for hanging holiday lights around the house!
Opening the Door
Indoor Christmas lights add a festive touch to any doorway or archway. Simply take garland or any other kind of greenery and intertwine it with string lights, starting at one end and weaving in and out. Then place the finished product on the floor and bring the ends together. The “fold” of the greenery becomes the center, which should be positioned in the center of the entrance with the rest of the strand flanking its left and right sides and lightly draped to look as natural as possible. Push pins or small, sturdy hooks should be used to attach the string lights/garland combination to the doorway or archway.
Stepping Up
Hanging holiday lights on your banister and using them to decorate your stairs is another creative twist on indoor Christmas light installation. Weave together string lights and garland, ensuring that the end of the garland strand and the end of the string lights are at the same end to simplify lighting. Run the strand down one side of the stairs, starting at the top, and/or drape or wrap it around the banister. Embellish the look of colored or multi-colored lights with white bows tied every three feet or so along the banister. Use a red or green bow to create the same effect with strands comprised of garland and white string lights.
Fanning the Festivity Flames
You might also want to consider using indoor Christmas lights to frame your fireplace. Again, intertwine string lights and garland and drape atop the fireplace mantle, with the ends cascading downward. Top off your creative Christmas light installation by decorating a few medium or large house plants with additional string lights, preferably white ones that can be used year-round. Place these in your front hallway, near the stairs and in the dining room. Of course, these ideas are just a start; there are plenty of other means of hanging holiday lights to fashion an interior winter wonderland. Don’t be afraid to experiment; the results may surprise you.
How To Hang Outdoor Christmas Lights
Installing Exterior Christmas Lights Can Be Handled In A Few Easy-to-Understand Steps
Do you love the look of outdoor holiday lights, but dread the idea of installing them? Don’t worry. The process isn’t as daunting as it seems. Just follow this primer, and you’ll have no trouble hanging outdoor Christmas lights.
Start With the Basics
The basics of how to hang outdoor Christmas lights include performing a few basic preliminary steps. First, find an electrical receptacle. You’ll want to use heavy-duty extension cords, running from a 120-volt electrical outlet protected by a ground fault circuit interrupter. Then, take a long measuring tape of 30 feet or longer and measure both the length of your home along the ground and its height. Also, measure the height of any component of your yard–such as bushes and trees–you will want to embellish with exterior Christmas lights, as well as the lengths of Christmas light strings needed to decorate the periphery of doors and windows. Then calculate how many 50-foot Christmas light strings are required to accommodate these measurements combined.
Get A Good Look
Take a good look at the Christmas light strings you’re going to hang. If there’s one important thing to remember about how to hang outdoor Christmas lights once you’ve finished the basics ,but before you actually start doing the job, it’s this: Inspect all light strings for broken and missing bulbs, and thoroughly examine wires for defects and excessive wear. Pull broken bulbs out with long-nose pliers, and don’t forget to wear gloves. Unplug strings to replace faulty bulbs, re-testing them to make certain that lights work. Check for a blown fuse on any Christmas light string that doesn’t work at all, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for replacing the fuse and perform a re-check, replacing the whole string if the fuse blows again. Discard any outdoor holiday lights whose wires are worn out or otherwise defective.
Up On The Ladder
Finally, it’s time to actually climb the ladder to install those exterior Christmas lights. It’s best to use an extension ladder, unless you reside in a home with low eaves. Lean the ladder against the eaves, ensuring that it sits firmly on flat ground. The ladder should extend fairly far above the eaves and be propped in a position that allows for comfortable climbing. Any gutter against which a ladder leans should have a short piece of 2 by 4 inserted in it to secure that ladder. Attach outdoor holiday lights along your gutters and/or roof with plastic clips manufactured especially for that purpose. The clips work by gripping shingles or gutters; they feature lower hooks designed to hold Christmas light strands and extension cords. Attach exterior Christmas lights to the trim of your home’s windows trim, as well as to other vertical surfaces, with tube light or nail-on plastic clips spaced at intervals of about 12 inches. Then stand back and admire your work. Now, learning about hanging Christmas lights wasn’t that hard, was it?
How To: Decorate Xmas Lights
It’s Easy to Decorate Using a Christmas Lights Professional
People who are busy, who need physical help, or who simply want to pay for expertise are perfect candidates for the Christmas lights professional. A Christmas lights professional can hang Xmas lights efficiently and safely. Although costly, the Christmas lights professional takes care of design, measurement, installation, and take down. Some people face sticker shock because they don’t know how much it costs. They don’t realize how labor intensive it is. The most important job of the Christmas lights professional is to make sure all stays safe. Their job is focused on using proper caps, terminators and measuring wattage to not over burden a line. They won’t use wire nuts, black tape, or cheap lights that will melt. The Christmas lights professional can take down and discard the lights at the end of the season or take down and leave the lights for you to store in the off-season and then pay only for installation in subsequent years.
Safety is Important When Hanging Outdoor Lights
Education is key when hanging outdoor lights and there are a few important steps to follow to make sure the Xmas lights are hung the right way. First, determine the number of hanging outdoor lights that are needed. Second, locate power sources to be used for hanging outdoor lights. Third, calculate the number of watts that can run on each circuit. Fourth, visually inspect the Xmas lights including wires, and bulbs. Replace any broken or missing bulbs on the hanging outdoor lights. If the wires are faulty, replace the strings. Fifth, test the Xmas lights prior to hanging outdoor lights.
The Right Tools Makes a Christmas Lights Repair Quick and Easy
A few tools can make a Christmas lights repair more efficient and safe. There are a few devices on the market to locate bad mini bulbs on a set without first removing it. These tools can make a Christmas lights repair by locating a Xmas light “hum” through the use of an audible continuity detector. They also have a fuse and bulb tester and a bulb puller. Some Christmas lights repair tools feature a head light with LED beam to illuminate the working area. Christmas lights repair tools save time and money by locating bad bulbs, sockets, and wire without checking the entire strand.
Using Color to Enhance Your Christmas Light Decorations
Color Makes the Mood
Color has an amazing ability to evoke emotion and create mood. Using color to create the feeling you want your home to emanate for Christmas is easier than you might imagine.
Take elegance for example. Shades of gold and ivory together can create one of the most elegant Christmas statements. Simply mixing these two colors in your Christmas light decorations will give you the antique feel of sophisticated holidays of years gone by. Remove all the bold color from your decorative scheme and the feeling is not only elegant, but soft, calm, quiet and sophisticated–perfect for chic, grown-up adult parties.
Need a livelier scheme? Simply add some red to your gold and ivory decorations and suddenly your home takes on a bolder and more contemporary look. Check out this Christmas tree and see how the color changes your reaction to the photo.
Should you need to entertain sophisticated clients, family and children all in one space, consider starting with a base color-scheme of gold and ivory. You can entertain your professional friends with this calm, chic scheme. Then when it’s time for the family and kids to arrive, change the entire mood quickly by simply adding a few red flower picks to your garlands and red ornaments to your tree. Voila! In no time you can change the entire mood of party with a few simple changes to your Christmas lights decorations.
Let There Be Light–Candle and Wreath Lighting
Light as well as color can be used to influence the emotions evoked by holiday decorating. Add candles and wreath lighting to a mantle to achieve a beautiful warm look above your fireplace like the one pictured here.
Elegant Inside & Outside Christmas Lights
When the interior is complete, you’ll want to be sure to take you Christmas light outdoor. Elegant, beautiful Christmas light decorations are as easy to complete outdoors as in. Consider this outdoor Christmas tree. It’s simple, elegant and carries our beautiful gold scheme outside.
Editor’s Review of Christmas Lighting and Decorating Sites–Part 1
Let Our Fingers do the Walking–Follow us to the Best of Holiday Decorating
Looking for a reliable source to give you novel ideas and sure-fire tips for Christmas lighting and decorating? Look no further. Our review editor has done the work for you. She’s taken the time to hunt down the best of the websites that profess to offer fool-proof tips and ideas to make your holiday decorating a winter breeze.
Xmas Light–Holiday Decorations with Magazine Style
Rating: A+
www.BHG.com This is the website of Meredith Publishing’s Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. It doesn’t get much better than this for ideas on Christmas lighting and decorating. With some of the best writers in the industry, this site’s staff is equipped with a spot-on taste for American trends–including holiday decorating ideas. You’ll find more ideas than you could ever implement in just one Christmas season. There are so many you’ll have to search through and pick out the ones that best appeal to your sense of style. Our reviewer noted everything from outside Christmas light ideas to easy Christmas tree lighting tips, as well as suggestions for last minute, holiday décor and more time consuming techniques that evoke elegant vintage themes of days gone by. Check this one out. You’re sure to find something that appeals to you.
Up Close and Personal–Designers share their Best Holiday Decorating Tips
http://hgtv.com/25-great-holiday-ideas/show/index.html
Sea Glass Ornaments
For those who prefer getting their holiday ideas from talk-show-style television, there’s this 1 hour on-line holiday decorating show from HGTV with designers Angelo Surmelis and Erinn Valencich. Here you’ll find ideas submitted by homemakers just like you as well as simple, down-home ideas from the HGTV pros. Not as uptown-elegant as BHG but certainly full of usable ideas. The only downside here is losing time to the plentiful interruptions of the advertising sponsors. Check out the novel sea glass ornaments submitted by a viewer–pretty & original.
This is the first of a series of articles reviewing holiday decorating sites on the internet. Check back with us for Part 2 and frequent updates with new sites to visit.
Christmas-Decorative Holiday Lights
Create a Merry Environment with the Use of String Lights
One of the easiest ways to add pizzazz to your holiday decorating is with the use of string lights. Among the many opportunities that exist to decorate your interior spaces for Christmas, string lights are a quick and inexpensive way to set a mood and add visual appeal for the festive season. They can evoke a warm and comfortable “home for the holidays” feel, a jolly party atmosphere, or, even, a romantic softly-lit surrounding. String lights allow you to quickly transform a room’s mood by adjusting other lighting in a room. Wrap string lights around Christmas trees, garland, wreaths, or even other displayed greenery. Other ideas are to put string lights in or around table-top displays. A large hurricane sparkles with beauty when filled with string lights and glass ornaments. Fireplace mantels that are lit with string lights sparkle with festivity.
Make It a Green LED Christmas
If investing in new Christmas lighting this year, try energy-saving LED Christmas products. Green is in and the commitment will provide financial savings throughout the years. A variety of electric or battery powered LED Christmas products in many sizes exist to design a monochromatic white or colorful fascinating lighting display. The assortment of string lighting includes many bulb size options and shapes, as well as string lengths. Some popular shaped string LED Christmas lighting includes star-shaped spheres and Moravian stars to make a dramatic display. In addition to string lights, you can use rope or icicle lighting to embellish your environment. Pre-lit LED Christmas trees, wreaths, garland, or swags provide an easy and quick decorating option. As with indoor LED Christmas lighting, many options are available for your outdoor yard decorations.
Construct a Fabulous Holiday Display with Outdoor Christmas Lights
What better way is there to improve curb appeal during the holiday season than with the use of outdoor Christmas lights? Whether using traditional displays like a nativity scene or using a more humorous non-traditional Santa riding a motorcycle, many messages of holiday reflection or cheer can be displayed in the yard. Outdoor Christmas lights can be used as accents for a home and its landscaping. Icicle lighting can highlight roof lines, while net lighting draws attention to shrubbery. Rope lighting can even be used to outline driveways and sidewalks to welcome visitors. Don’t forget to dangle stars and snowflakes from your trees. Neighbors can create a unified cohesive neighborhood look by decorating all parkway tree trunks and tree tops in same-colored outdoor Christmas lights. This creates a beautiful pathway down a street. The opportunities for creativity and cheer are endless with the use of outdoor Christmas lights.
Holiday Organization: Storing those Pesky Little Icicle Lights
Have you joined the holiday trend of draping your home in beautiful, cascading icicle lights? If you have, then you know the holiday fun is really over when it’s time to take them down and store them for next year. Wrapping, bagging, twisting, turning or balling them up– finding a way to store holiday icicle lights is a real challenge. If hanging the holiday lights is your job for next winter, you have a vested interest in getting them put away right.
How to Keep Icicle Lights Tangle-Free
Keeping icicle lights tangle-free doesn’t have to be impossible. A variety of methods are available to help make storage of these outdoor xmas lights easier. One suggestion is laying your light strings out on plastic sheets, then taping them in place so the icicles don’t tangle. Once taped down, you simply roll the plastic sheets up and secure them for storage. Yet another method is to wrap your icicle lights around a plastic frame such as those that extension cords are sold on. This type of frame is also often seen in fabric and hobby stores. Ribbon and trimmings are often displayed on them. If you’re a crafter and can get your regular store to throw in the plastic frame, you’re in luck with your Xmas icicle lights!
Eliminate the Hassle of Ever Storing Your Holiday Lights Again
An even better idea is to get someone to handle your holiday lighting display for you. Many companies around the country are now offering the service of designing, hanging, and even wrapping and storing your holiday lighting display for you. To see what these companies have to offer try checking out some of these sites. They’re all highly professional residential and commercial holiday lighting contractors.
Low Priced Icicle Light Alternatives for the Do-It-Yourselfer
If you think hiring a firm to manage your holiday lights is taking it just a step too far, you might consider mimicking what they do with icicle lights. Many of these professional lighting experts offer icicle lights that are permanently attached to metal frames. If you’re handy, you might consider attaching your own icicle lights to metal or even wooden slats for easier and permanent display and storage. Icicle lights can be wrapped around slats and affixed with thin gauge wire or carefully stapled to strips of wood. Whatever method you choose, based on how much time, money and effort you’re willing to invest, you’re sure to have an eye popping display this upcoming holiday season.
Hanging string lights: An illuminating guide
Let there be light!
Attempting to get things done outside in the dark is both counterproductive and stressful. Unfortunately, installing lights can get a bit pricey, especially if you hire an electrician. One way to brighten up dark areas at a cheap price, particularly a porch or patio, is to invest in some string lights. Easy to assemble, string lights are the best option to fill any lighting void. Use this step-by-step guide to have your outdoor setting kindled with light in no time.
Step by step, day by day
1) Gather up a ladder (if needed), string lights, nail-in wire clips, an extension card and clips.
2) Calculate the perimeter of your porch to determine how long your string lights need to be. String lights come in an assortment of lengths, so make sure to check the information on the packaging beforehand.
3) Connect the extension cord to your exterior outlet. If you don’t have an exterior outlet, find the nearest indoor outlet, but secure the cord to the wall to avoid having it out in the open.
4) Place the lights on the brim of the porch, leaving enough leeway to reach the end of the extension cord. Attach the string lights using the nail-in wire clips you should have obtained.
5) Connect the ends of the string lights until they embrace the entire porch.
Things to keep in mind
If you follow these simple steps, you will no longer be forced inside come nightfall. There are a few things to keep in mind, however, in order to ensure you get the most out of your patio lights.
If you’re not tight on money, consider investing in some “big-brand name” string lights. Though they might posses a heftier price tag, they are more durable and will last you longer. In the process of hanging your string lights, you might get frustrated with how often they tangle. To avoid this problem, leave the string lights in their original packaging until you have to use them.
Try to avoid going over 15 amps per circuit – doing so might result in some unfortunate circumstances. Use the outlet you plug the string lights into STRICTLY for the lights to decrease the chances of a problem occurring. To determine the amount of amps in a circuit, divide the total number of watts by 120 volts, the typical number in American households.
-
Festive Lights Add Sparkle to Outdoors
-
Cheerful Yard Lighting Makes Holiday Merry
-
Technological Advances Make Holiday Lighting More Fun
-
Battery Christmas Lights Provide Safe and Easy Decorating
-
Share in the Spirit–Hang Outdoor Christmas Lighting
-
Outdoor Christmas Lights Safety
-
Unify Community Spirit Using Outdoor Holiday Lights
-
Have Fun With Your Holiday Lighting Installation
-
The Very Basics of DIY Outdoor Christmas Lights
-
How to Hang Outdoor Christmas Lights (Cont. 1)
