The holidays are here, meaning it’s time to bust out the outdoor holiday lighting and decorate to your heart’s content. There are many different ways to decorate with lights, including new-aged lasers which project tiny points of light onto your house and can be set up in less than fifteen minutes.

If you’re feeling more festive, however, and want to stick to traditional methods, there are a few tips you’ll want to know about. Like any creative endeavor, there are aesthetic principles at play in decorating with Christmas lights, as well as safety steps and tips to keep in mind.

Start with Your Resources

You may be antsy to start decorating and get a jump on your Christmas spirit, but it’s important to remember that your equipment may not be fully up to snuff right off the bat. Take a few minutes and check that all of your outdoor holiday lighting works properly and won’t burn out throughout the holiday season.

Use an outside outlet or power strip to test them and thoroughly inspect their functionality. You should also make sure your power strips and outside outlets work properly and can support the types and number of lights you’ll be using throughout the decorating process. If you have night lighting in your yard, you may want to see how it can integrate into your holiday display. 

Try Not to Mix and Match Lights

There are many different lighting choices you can use this holiday season. Two of the most popular by far are LED or incandescent lights, but no matter which you choose, you should be careful not to mix and match. These two types of lights contrast with each other starkly and almost never look good when combined.

Almost all lights used today to decorate are LED-based because they use less electricity and last longer than their incandescent counterparts. If you’re going modern and choosing LED, you won’t want to use incandescent lights anywhere else on your house, and vice versa. They simply clash and create aesthetic confusion to onlookers.

Create Balance

Many people make the mistake of focusing solely on their rooflines and neglect the rest of their yard or house. You should avoid this mistake by creating a nice visual and aesthetic balance within your house. The roofline of a house is important for quality and thorough decoration because it outlines your outdoor holiday lighting display.

It also creates emphasis on the house itself, but you should also decorate below the house and in your yard for added depth and unity. The whole picture created by your efforts is what makes for a truly great outdoor holiday lighting display.

Use Plastic

Plastic has been the go-to choose for many consumers for years now when they choose to decorate their house. In the past, wood and nails were chosen to hold down lights, but any home renovation or decoration store worth its salt will sell plastic clips you can use to tie down your lights easily and efficiently and create a nice festive effect.

These clips are easy to maneuver and don’t require too much effort on the part of the decorator. If you aren’t already, you should absolutely switch to these plastic clips.

Add Outdoor Holiday Lighting to your Backyard Too

If you’re still in the spirit after you finish the lights on the house and in the front yard, you can move onto the backyard. There are plenty of pieces of furniture you can decorate, and you can wrap your outdoor holiday lighting around the back rooflines of your house as well to create a unified effect.

This will impress anyone who can see the back of your house from the streets. Even the trees in the backyard need some love, so string up your lights wherever you can to create a great impression wherever you can, both in the front and the back.

Always Think of Safety First

No matter how much you choose to decorate, or in what manner, you should always be safe while you’re outside and celebrating the season. There are many safety tips to remember; for example, you should always keep the ladder tilted at a seventy-five-degree angle, watch for powerlines overhead, and never stop on a roof which has snow on it or looks icy.

To be extra cautious, you should also avoid using ladders on windy or inclement days and always have someone present to hold the ladder for you. Being careful and staying safe is the most important thing you can do this holiday season. Also be sure not to overload any outlets and keep your circuits in check. Count out your lights and wattage before plugging them in for maximum safety, and if you need help consult a pro.