8 Innovative Ways to Use Christmas Lights for Brightening Up the Holiday Season

Every year people put lights on their Christmas trees, on the roofs of their homes, in the trees and shrubbery, and around the windows. Whether they are white, colorful, blinking, or syncopated, they are an inextricable part of holiday decorations.

Thankfully, technological advancements have helped decorators choose more power-friendly versions of Christmas lights, both LED and solar-powered. Certainly, these greener choices are encouraged when buying new lights, but brightening the holiday season doesn’t stop with responsible choices.

There are lots of innovative ways to use all of this eco-friendly lighting to make your house look both traditional and fresh. Christmas lights are a lot of fun to play with. They are perfect for getting creative. They are going to make this season sparkle all the more.

Lit Canvases

Lots of folks buy lovely holiday canvases (or framed prints) with familiar words like “joy” or phrases painted on them. These can be kicked up a notch by adding a string of light to the back of them, poking the lights through in appropriate places, maybe along the edges of the script, or dotted throughout the background.

Light Globe

Whether it’s finding a spherical wire frame or wrapping the lights around something else that shape, light globes are a great way to turn Christmas lights into concentrated displays and functional light fixtures. These can work wonderfully in the house instead of using normal room lights, or they can work hanging from trees in the yard. The globe gives the string of lights a different look.

Glowing Christmas Basket

A basket full of natural items like pine cones, holly branches, oranges, nuts, and so on can be a cozy Christmas display as is. However, a string of Christmas lights can be run around the inside of the basket, mixed with the contents, to create a display that works on an entirely separate level.

Christmas Light Marquee

One of the things that makes a string (or several strings) of Christmas lights so alluring for getting creative is that they are so malleable. They can be arranged in virtually any shape we want and attached to all sorts of surfaces. Thus, making a Christmas light marquee with a holiday sentiment spelled out is easily done.

Ceiling Lights

While lights are traditionally fastened to roofs outside, using them under the roof is much less commonplace. Nevertheless, putting an amazing display of Christmas lights under the porch roof or on the ceiling of the entranceway in the house is a jaw-dropping way to make a light display. It can also make a kid’s room cool.

Lit Walkways

For those with walkways and sidewalk walls leading to or around the house, Christmas lights are a perfectly functional and decorative way to illuminate these spaces during the holiday seasons. String holiday lights along walkways mean that additional lights don’t have to go on to light the way, keeping the magic of fairy lights all the more evident.

Holiday Projection Lights

Projection lanterns, the ones that shine light through shapes that project on the wall, are an easy DIY project with Christmas lights. With a few pieces of cardboard, it’s as easy as cutting out shapes (stars, Christmas trees, snowmen, etc.), making a box from the cardboard, and stringing up some Christmas lights inside it. This makes that light display much more than just a lot of twinkling lights.

*Another method is to forgo Christmas lights and create covers for landscaping lights so that the image is projected on the outside walls.

Framed Lights & Cards

Some families love to display the cards they receive throughout the holiday season, and this is a fun way to do it. Take a fairly large and empty picture or window frame for the wall and string light around it and from one side to the other. Clip the holiday cards and messages on the wire with clothes pins. This makes the card display sparkle innovatively.

Whatever the case may be, it’s time yet again to have a wonderful holiday season and make the most of getting into the spirit of things. Showing a few new funky ways to utilize Christmas lights can be a great start.

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• 3 Live Plants to Brighten Your Home for the Holidays
• Daily Digestive Detox Tips to Help Manage Excess This Holiday Season

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