10 Ways to Decorate With Outdoor Christmas Lights
Use these techniques to light up your house and garden for the holiday season
Lauren Dunec Hoang
November 24, 2023
Houzz Editor; landscape designer and former garden editor for Sunset Magazine and in-house designer for Sunset's Editorial Test Garden. Her garden designs have been featured in the Sunset Western Garden Book of Landscaping, Sunset Western Garden Book of Easy-Care Plantings (cover), Inhabitat, and POPSUGAR.
Houzz Editor; landscape designer and former garden editor for Sunset Magazine and... More
As anyone who has untangled a snarled string of lights or come up 5 feet short on the roofline can attest, the process of hanging holiday lights is more complicated than it looks. A satisfying result depends both on having the right products on hand as well as proper installation. Let us help take the guesswork out of your holiday light setup this year with tips from lighting professionals, including tricks for hiding cords, the best lights for tree-wrapping and how to evenly hang lights along the eaves of your home.
1. Wrap Shrubs
Adding just a few lights to the landscape can make a big difference in making the garden an inviting place to walk through or gaze at. In this walled garden in Manchester, England, a pair of clipped shrubs wrapped with white lights makes a lovely entrance to a garden room.
Get the look: To evenly cover outdoor shrubs, pick up “net lights,” which have bulbs distributed over a square or rectangular lattice of cords. Read the packaging to be sure the netting is large enough to wrap all the way around your shrubs.
Adding just a few lights to the landscape can make a big difference in making the garden an inviting place to walk through or gaze at. In this walled garden in Manchester, England, a pair of clipped shrubs wrapped with white lights makes a lovely entrance to a garden room.
Get the look: To evenly cover outdoor shrubs, pick up “net lights,” which have bulbs distributed over a square or rectangular lattice of cords. Read the packaging to be sure the netting is large enough to wrap all the way around your shrubs.
2. Deck Out Your Front Porch
This front porch in Kansas — done up with festive garlands, strings of lights and a planter shaped like Santa’s boots — looks lavishly festive without being overwhelming.
Get the look: Concentrating outdoor decorations in a single area, such as the entryway or a garden bed, can be a great way to go all out with holiday exuberance without turning your front yard into Disneyland.
Shop for holiday decorations on Houzz
This front porch in Kansas — done up with festive garlands, strings of lights and a planter shaped like Santa’s boots — looks lavishly festive without being overwhelming.
Get the look: Concentrating outdoor decorations in a single area, such as the entryway or a garden bed, can be a great way to go all out with holiday exuberance without turning your front yard into Disneyland.
Shop for holiday decorations on Houzz
3. Showcase Trees
Gardens this time of year are primarily quiet. Highlight the branch structure of deciduous trees by wrapping the trunk and individual branches with white lights. Choose a single tree as a specimen, or illuminate a cluster of trees for greater impact.
Pro tip: To get a professional look, Ryan Morici of Heritage Oaks Landscaping recommends swapping regular holiday lights for LED mini lights to save on power consumption. “The LED lights allow you to use many more lights per circuit versus the incandescent lights,” Morici says.
Gardens this time of year are primarily quiet. Highlight the branch structure of deciduous trees by wrapping the trunk and individual branches with white lights. Choose a single tree as a specimen, or illuminate a cluster of trees for greater impact.
Pro tip: To get a professional look, Ryan Morici of Heritage Oaks Landscaping recommends swapping regular holiday lights for LED mini lights to save on power consumption. “The LED lights allow you to use many more lights per circuit versus the incandescent lights,” Morici says.
4. Line a Pathway With Luminarias
Welcome guests this year with an enchanting walkway lined with glowing luminarias.
Get the look: You can purchase luminarias or make your own with paper bags weighted with a handful of sand at the bottom. If you’re thinking of a large display, gather some helpers to place tea lights in each one — or use battery-powered candles — and light just before guests arrive.
Welcome guests this year with an enchanting walkway lined with glowing luminarias.
Get the look: You can purchase luminarias or make your own with paper bags weighted with a handful of sand at the bottom. If you’re thinking of a large display, gather some helpers to place tea lights in each one — or use battery-powered candles — and light just before guests arrive.
5. Hang Snowflakes
Trade traditional string lights for a set with glittering snowflakes. Hang them where they have room to stand out, such as just below the eaves or along large branches of a tree in the front yard.
Trade traditional string lights for a set with glittering snowflakes. Hang them where they have room to stand out, such as just below the eaves or along large branches of a tree in the front yard.
6. Illuminate Potted Branches
You may not have small trees or shrubs to wrap with lights along driveways or paved entryways. But you can light up container plantings instead.
Get the look: Pick up branches from the backyard or a florist, and set them upright in containers filled with sand or gravel. Wrap the branches with lights of your choosing, and use conifer trimmings to hide the plugs and containers.
10 High-Impact Ideas to Dress Up Your Winter Containers
You may not have small trees or shrubs to wrap with lights along driveways or paved entryways. But you can light up container plantings instead.
Get the look: Pick up branches from the backyard or a florist, and set them upright in containers filled with sand or gravel. Wrap the branches with lights of your choosing, and use conifer trimmings to hide the plugs and containers.
10 High-Impact Ideas to Dress Up Your Winter Containers
7. Add Magic to Snowy Landscapes
Lights twinkling like tiny stars hovering over a snowy garden are just about as magical as it gets. To mimic stars overhead, wrap branches that overhang garden walkways or beds to create a softly lit canopy.
Lights twinkling like tiny stars hovering over a snowy garden are just about as magical as it gets. To mimic stars overhead, wrap branches that overhang garden walkways or beds to create a softly lit canopy.
8. Light Up a Treehouse
As if a backyard treehouse weren’t magical enough, this one is fully decked out for Christmas. A Houzz favorite — with good reason — the treehouse was built by a Dallas couple, with the help of an architect, to give their grandchildren a place for imaginative play.
As if a backyard treehouse weren’t magical enough, this one is fully decked out for Christmas. A Houzz favorite — with good reason — the treehouse was built by a Dallas couple, with the help of an architect, to give their grandchildren a place for imaginative play.
9. Highlight a Wreath
If you already have landscape lighting that washes a wall with light, use this as an opportunity to hang a holiday wreath or swag. Weave string lights into the wreath or simply leave it as is — either way looks classic and understated.
Browse wreaths and garlands
If you already have landscape lighting that washes a wall with light, use this as an opportunity to hang a holiday wreath or swag. Weave string lights into the wreath or simply leave it as is — either way looks classic and understated.
Browse wreaths and garlands
10. Outline the Eaves of Your Home
Perhaps the most classic style, perimeter lighting along a home’s eaves and roofline creates an inviting arrival. Pelham McMurryfrom Light Up Nashville shares these tips for getting a professional look at home:
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Perhaps the most classic style, perimeter lighting along a home’s eaves and roofline creates an inviting arrival. Pelham McMurryfrom Light Up Nashville shares these tips for getting a professional look at home:
- Upgrade your lights. “Even the most expensive sets of LED lights at box stores are cheap-quality,” McMurry says. “Commercial-grade LED lights purchased from specialty retailers is the way to go if you don’t want to repurchase your lights year after year. Quality lights cost more, but in the long run, you’ll save time, frustration and money by not having to repurchase every year.” To get those perfectly straight lines, where every bulb seems exactly aligned with the next one, attach lights to your trim with commercial-grade clips.
- Consider a professional.“There are many reasons to hire a professional to install your holiday lightings, but maybe the most important is safety,” McMurry says. To avoid the risk of falling from a ladder or slipping on an icy roof, consider hiring a local lighting professional.
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We just finished putting up our Christmas decorations - white icycle lights around the house, candy canes and colored lights lining the walkway and drive, dripping lights in the oak trees, colored lights on the fence, and multiple lighted/moving displays surrounding the yard - a 3 car train, Santa in a sleigh with 4 reindeer, Santa in a pirogue with 3 alligators (this is Louisiana!), and Mr. Bingle (an iconic New Orleans character - a snowman with holly wings and a waffle cone hat) to name a few. We have a corner lot with 2 1/2 acres, so we have displays on 3 sides. NO inflatibles, and everything is on timers - on at 5pm and off at 10 pm. Thank goodness for LEDs!
My main decor is my Nativity set. It reminds us of what Christmas is about. I also put lights on a front door wreath and garland. I see a lot of neighbors hire professionals to outline their roof lines, but that has gotten boring. It all looks the same. The pros need to come up with something more creative. I’m do like to see lights at Christmas, both white and colored lights. We don’t get snow, so it makes me think of icy landscapes.
We have always been minimal outdoor decorators. When we lived in the Sierra foothills where neighbors were not in line of sight without using binoculars it got really dark most winter nights. I put a string of colored lights on the fence alongside the driveway. They were on timers set for the range of time we would be coming home from work. I left them up until we had twilight to find our way up the driveway without hitting a coyote or boar.
Now we are in West VA and housing our daughter and granddaughter in our basement apartment. Granddaughter (8yr old) is enthusiastic about outdoor decorations. I have 1 short set of battery lights and plan to buy a few more for her to put on some young evergreen trees. She also wants lights on the front porch railing. That means buying more timers or looking for solar powered.