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Christmas Light Reviews and Buying Guide:The whole Christmas light thing originated in Germany back in the 17th century, of course back then the lights were just candles. Today there are dozens of choices for the consumer from indoor lights, outdoor selections, and yard decorations. Growing up my Dad never did a lot of decorating around the outside of the house with Christmas lights and so I have tried to change that trait in our familiy. Each year I scout out the early deals and try to get fun new lights and decorations that will give our yard and house that festive feeling from the outside. A few years back the icicle christmas lights were all the rage but now those are seen less frequently as people want yard displays with deer, santa and his sleigh, or snowmen. The mini Christmas lights with the incandescent lamps produce a lot of light, but when one filament goes it always seems like the entire set is out too. I prefer the newer LED Christmas lights that emit diodes and use less electricity than the incandescent bulbs.
 the energy usage has dropped dramatically. I have also purchased several outdoor light timers so that I can easily control how long the lights are on. Why have them lit all night when you can have them automatically turned of at midnight. I hang many of my lights from hooks that I have placed below the gutters to make for easy take down and setup. The net Christmas lights and tree wraps are easy to put up as well and definitely help define your yard better. The nets work great on shrubs and bushes, just drape them over and turn them on. Always test your lights indoors before taking the time to set them up outdoors. I few years ago, after I had setup 2 or 3 strands of the icicle lights around the gutter line of my house I realized that they had burned out and no longer worked (big waste of my time). If you plan on doing decorations outside each year for the holidays, consider having multiple electric outlets places in your yard. This way you eliminate having to run long extension cords all over your yard which can be dangerous. The Christmas light industry has really blossomed in the past few years and sales have easily passed the billion dollar mark and the yard decorations and displays have helped pushed sales upwards. You can buy snowflakes, snowmen, candy canes, Santas, reindeer, angels, nutcrackers, nativity scenes, and much more. These Christmas displays with lights are much more expensive than traditional lights but they do look awesome when up in your yard. I bought some snowmen and candy cane decorations for the upcoming holiday season and can't wait to get them into the yard. There is a street in Portland, Oregon called Peacock Lane that each year has a huge Christmas light display for the public to view. I get some of my inspirations from that show. As for shopping online for Christmas lights, my 2 favorite sites are Christmaslights.com and Christmaslightsetc.com. Both sites have new and innovative products with excellent pricing. You can always compare prices with those at Target or Amazon. Inflatable Christmas decorations are popular where I live, but I prefer displays with lights that are easily seen from far away. Down below we have listed some of the most popular and best selling Christmas lights on the market. RECOMMENDED - We suggest shopping online at Amazon.com since they carry all the leading brands and often have the lowest prices on the internet. You can browse the top selling string and rope lights online here.
Indoor Christmas Lights:By indoor Christmas lights, I am referring to the window decorations that stick to the window with suckers on the back of the display. We have several of these that we picked up at stores like Target and Wal-Mart. There are stars, snowmen, santas, and candy canes. You plug them into a wall outlet and the window is lit up. If you have blinds in your windows they work great. Just pull up the blinds, place the decoration against the window with the suction cups holding firmly and light it up. They look great from the street as people look towards your house. I ran several of these from about 4 windows last year and neighbors kept commenting on how nice they looked.
Christmas Light Yard Displays - Deer - Santas:Target is a great store for finding deals on Christmas light yard displays. You will find lighted holographic train decorations, igloos with lights, polar bears, snowflakes, snowmen, standing bucks, feeding reindeer, and santa. Most of these lighted outdoor Christmas yard decorations are at least $50 with several closer to $80. I try to think of these items as not a one time thing but something that will last for years. If you spread that cost out over 5-7 years (average life of these items), that's only about $10 to $12 a year which makes sense financially. Some of the moving displays of deer or Santa cost $100's, but these decorations are well worth the money. Each year they seem to get better and better in terms of lighting and easy of setup. The 2 most popular items are the train and the polar bear (both are $80). The high end items on the Christmaslights.com website are spectacular, though very expensive. For example, their best selling 8 Foot 3D Christmas Tree sells for $880. The inflatable globes are another option with things like Santa and his sleigh for $150. Several of my neighbors have these and they do say the fans that pump air into these things can be proned to problems. They often find the globe deflated with the pump not working properly. If you live in an area where it gets windy, make sure you tie down the Christmas inflatable display. There was a guy in our town whose Christmas globe flew almost 4 blocks away in a wind storm after he forget to secure it to the ground. RECOMMENDED - We suggest browsing the inflatable Christmas yard decorations on Amazon.com here.
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