Christmas Lights

Buyers guide to Christmas lights

Christmas just isn’t Christmas without going overboard on the twinkly lights; there are hundreds of places around the house and garden where you can add a string of lights, acrylic lighted reindeer, penguin or hanging starburst. All our Christmas lights are sourced from the most respected manufactures both in the UK and Europe. Our buyers Caroline Young and Clara Penhallurick travel extensively to make sure we bring you the latest in technological lighted items at the very best prices. All the lights are now LEDs or long-life bulbs; the LEDs are cool to touch, low energy and last about 50,000 hours. Even though LEDs do cost a little more than the long-life lights they cost much less to run so you won’t be getting any nasty shocks after Christmas. Being cool to the touch they are the obvious choice if you have small children in the house. The majority of light strings are sold for lighting the Christmas tree, however this is an onerous task and if you would rather be spending the time with family and friends then consider investing in one of our pre-lit artificial Christmas trees. They all carry a Hayes Lifetime Warranty so you can be sure that it will last at least 15 years. The lights are all LEDs and should last an average of 50,000 hours, spares are available free of charge for the life of the tree. These pre-lit trees can be personalised by adding more lights to the tree; red lights in the centre of the tree give it a glow from inside which can give your decorations extra sparkle. Add snowball or icicle lights around the outside of the tree for that winter wonderland look. Lights can be placed on shelves to emphasise your treasured ornaments, looped from picture rails, wound up the bannister (just remember to wind then around the spindles not the actual handrail). Place a small string of battery-operated lights in your favourite glass vase with some glass baubles and use it as a soft lamp. Drape over pictures, hang in the window, wind around some twigs sprayed with metallic spray, add to a pre-decorated garland and place down the centre of the dining table or add to a bowl of dried vegetation to make a centrepiece for a coffee table. Click here to read the blog and watch the video showing what we have done to make a Christmas decoration in an old wooden bowl. If decorating the garden or the house exterior make sure the lights you use are designed to be used outdoors as the indoor lights don’t have wiring of sufficient grade to withstand the winter weather. Icicle lights hung off the gutters of your home looks particularly attractive or just wind a simple string around your favourite tree. When buying outdoor lights consider the power source, if you are going to have trailing wires across the garden then opt for the battery-operated lights which incorporate a timer so they will come on and go off automatically. If lighting your garden at Christmas is going to be a big thing every year have an outdoor socket fitted by a qualified electrician and remember not to have wires trailing across paths. Christmas lights are not just for Christmas having an outdoor socket also gives you the freedom of lighting the garden the rest of the year and using it as an extra room for entertaining family and friends. Novelty LED lights wound around the bed head or looped on the wall above the bed can brighten up a child’s bedroom. If you need a new Christmas tree, consider buying one of our frosted or snowy artificial trees, they have been our best seller in the past couple of years as customers look for something a little different from the traditional green. They look fabulous decorated in natural materials, such as wood, leather and fur paired with cool Arctic blues, white, moss green, taupe, oyster, antique rose and chocolate. Click here to read how to achieve this Scandi look for your own tree.