Christmas Tree Lights

Putting The "Ritz" On Your Tree!

Buy Christmas Lights

Christmas tree lights make your tree sparkle with brilliance and color. There are so many great places to buy them, even off season.

Buy Christmas Lights

Cheap Christmas Lights

Mini Lights

LED Lights

C7 LED Lights

Bubble Lights

Solar Lights

Musical Lights

Blinking Lights

Light Bulbs

Christmas Light History

Vintage Lights

C7 Christmas Lights

How To Fix Lights

Light Bulb Tester

Ten Cool Things To Know About Christmas Tree Lights

1. Mini lights are the most popular type of light with the white lights generally outselling the multicolored ones.
2. LED (light emitting diode) mini lights are rapidly taking over as the new Christmas light of choice, mainly due to their lower energy use and cooler touch.
3. The most popular LED mini lights are the 5MM "wide angle" lights that look like pencil eraser heads. If you buy "full wave rectified" LED's you avoid the "flickering"effect found on cheaper lights.
4. In the 1960's and 1970's the larger incandescent "C7" lights were used to light up most Christmas trees. Check your old family photos and you'll likely see a picture of them.
5. Costs for Christmas lights vary. Incandescent mini lights sell for as little as 2 cents per light while LED minis go for about 10 to 25 cents per bulb. LED lights are rated at 25,000 hours and up compared to about 3000 hours for an older "incan" set. 
6. Decorators recommend that you use about 100 incandescent mini lights per foot of tree or about 75 LED mini lights per foot of tree. So an 8 foot tree would require 800 incandescent mini lights but only 600 LED minis.
7. Electricians (not to mention firemen) recommend no more than 300 incandescent mini
   lights strung together end to end (i.e. 3 sets of 100 lights connected together). Due to their lower power usage, you can string about 2000 LED lights together. 
8. Most artificial trees these days come prelit with the lights already positioned on the tree. This is, of course, a huge time saver, but it can become a headache if (or when) a light string fails.
9. Christmas tree "lights" in the 1800's were actually small candles positioned on the tree. The tree was generally lit for only a half hour at a time, with a "guard" armed with a bucket of water or sand nearby. Electric Christmas lights became mainstream in the 1930's.
10. Mini lights are wired in series. That used to mean if one light went out the whole string went dark. Not so today! Newer technology has come to the rescue and enabled strings to remain lit even with a bulb burned out. The bigger C7 lights don't have this problem since they're wired in parallel.
    

Christmas Light Styles- There Are More Than You Think!

Early on, Christmas lights came in just a few styles. Now there are a bazillion of them! Check out the links below to find out more information on these popular Christmas tree lights.

Mini Lights

Hands down the most popular style, "minis" have been around since the 1970's. While many go for the traditional "warm white" incandescent minis, they're rapidly being replaced by the newer LEDs.

LED  Lights

LED (light emitting diode) lights are becoming really popular in part because they use so much less electricity and are cooler to the touch. They're a bit pricey but they also last longer.

C7 Christmas Lights

These lights were really popular in the 1960's and 1970's. Using larger bulbs they really warm up a room- in more ways than one. Like any old-style incandescent bulb they get quite hot to the touch!

C7 LED Christmas Tree Lights

These lights are gaining in popularity with the new LED technology. Downsides: higher prices per string, plus they don't quite have the solid color look of the older incandescent C7s.

Want to go more exotic? Here are some of the more unique Christmas lights available:

Bubble Christmas Tree Lights- "candle-shaped" retro lights dating from the 1940's.
Solar Christmas Tree Lights- these LED lights are powered by a solar-charged battery.
Musical Christmas Tree Lights- who says you can't be serenaded by your tree!

How To Get...And Keep...Your Tree Lit

Excitement reigns in the air as you put up your tree lights anticipating the beautiful Christmas setting you're creating.

But that excitement can quickly turn to exasperation if those lights don't behave the way they're supposed to!

To insure you have a stress-free, Hallmark-style Christmas you may want to check out the following pages on dealing with Christmas light technical issues:

Putting Lights On The Tree

It seems easy enough. Decorating your tree with lights should be pretty straightforward. But it's harder than you think! Check out this section for helpful pointers on how to put up lights.

How To Fix Christmas Lights

We've all been there, right? After testing your lights and slaving away to string them up properly, you turn them on and...half the tree is dark! Ignorance is not bliss here. Read this section to learn how to deal with those pesky lights.

Christmas Light Bulb Tester

No home should be without one of these. Pro decorators swear by them. Find out why.

Other Topics Of Interest

Christmas Lights History
Blinking Christmas Lights
Christmas Decorating Services
Christmas Tree Light Bulbs
Vintage Christmas Lights

Return to top of Christmas Tree Lights page.