Make Your Home Sparkle with Christmas Light Bulbs!

December has become the most exciting season of the year, filled with twinkling Christmas light bulbs, the hustle and bustle of shopping and the delicious scent of baked treats. When you think about it, lighting your house both inside and out is a very important part of our celebrations.

Christmas lights come in a many shapes and colors to accommodate any décor. They make our homes cheerful and festive. Many of us want to share their beauty by decorating the outside of our home and there are many competitions in every city to make the best display! Most people, though, just want to use a few strings outside and fill their living spaces with light. They have many options this year as the lighting industry has advanced with new technology.

Traditional is Still Popular

Most of us grew up with lights on our Christmas trees, strung around our windows and scattered throughout the house to accentuate holiday displays. There were cords and extension cords everywhere! I think most of us also remember the yearly chore of checking the strings of lights to find out and replace burned out bulbs, a chore that took hours. The development of lights that would stay lit if one burned out was met with enthusiasm and made it much easier and more pleasant to hang our lights.

Until the past couple of years, Christmas light bulbs were rather fragile. They were white lights inside glass bulbs that could appear colored if the class was tinted. The trouble with these lights was that they could break, crack or the tint would chip. We had to take great care in using and storing our lights if we wanted them to last. Then plastic took the place of glass in many types of lights followed by battery-operated lights that eliminated dangerous cords. This allowed people to be more creative and prevented many falls. Traditional lights are still very popular but there is a new contender on the market now that it gaining a huge market share.

The LED Revolution

LED lights have come down in price enough so that practically anyone can afford them. While they are still more costly than traditional Christmas light bulbs they burn from 50,000 to 200,000 hours compared to 3,000 hours for traditional lights. This means that instead of replacing your lights every few years you probably won’t have to do so for at least a decade.

People are beginning to prefer LED lights for a lot of reasons. First, you’ll save energy. A string of 140 LED lights use the same amount of energy as one 7 watt light bulb. That’s 80-90% less electricity than a string of traditional lights. LED Lights are lighter in weight and generally easier to handle.

More Variety

LED lights come in a variety of shapes, sizes and functionality. You can get them in strings or ropes; ropes are popular for outside lighting because they are easy to wrap around shrubs and trees. LED lights are sealed and waterproof, too, so you don’t have to worry about the dangers of shorting out due to moisture.

You can get LED Christmas light bulbs in clear, multi-colored strands or stick with one color. You can even get them with frosted “glass” for a warm, welcoming effect. There are icicles to hang on your porch or roof, net lights for shrubs or small trees and the new “snowfall” lights that simulate falling snow. You can make your strings and ropes burn steadily, blink rhythmically or blink randomly. You can choose big or miniature lights.

Lighting Your Home

You can get LED Christmas light bulbs at various price ranges starting at about $20 for a string of 100. Traditional lights are about a quarter of that price for the initial outlay but have a proportionally short life. Some people think that LED lights are too costly but once you factor in a longer life and the energy savings, you might think they are worth the price. You can also repair your existing christmas lights and light bulbs with the help of tools that can fix the light strings very easily and in minutes.

Here is a short video to show you how great these christmas light bulbs can be: