String Lights for Christmas

The 2010 festive season has just begun! Perhaps you could celebrate with some new festive string lights. Though it might be hard to believe it is time to start thinking about putting up your Christmas lights. At the very least it is time to start thinking about your Christmas lights. Are you going to use your old lights? Will you splurge on some new lights or perhaps just augment your current Christmas lights. Often people get in a routine of using the same lighting scheme every holiday season. There is a fear of experimentation. While I generally believe in the old adage of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" with decorations that adage does not apply. Styles change and what was once fashionable might now look a little stale.

Thanksgiving has just past and if the polls are correct a good number of you are shopping today. While you are out at the malls and shops you might be wise to take a peak at the new Christmas lights on the market. There are some fabulous string lights available. String lights are also often referred to as rope lights. Using string lights in your Christmas lighting scheme is a great idea for a number of different reasons. They are versatile, durable, reasonably priced and use energy efficient technology.

I'm sure many of us are old enough to remember when Christmas lights were incredibly fragile and each bulb was individually screwed into the string. The process of putting them up and taking them down and storing them was a delicate operation. Even the smallest bump or knock might damage one of the bulbs and would result in the entire string failing to illuminate. The process of figuring out which bulb was a dud was onerous and frustrating. You will be happy to know that string lights are characteristically opposite. You can throw string lights on the ground and step on them and they will continue to faithfully work.

String lights are also very easy to handle. They are light weight and flexible. They can be attached to your house with small nails or ties. String lights can be attached to your eaves trough in a straight line or they can be wound around tree trunks or railings. String lights can also be formed into a shape like a candle or bell. Another effective use of string lighting is up lighting. You can puddle the string lights around the base of a garden feature to create a subtle up lighting effect.

Of course this type of lights can also be used inside your home at Christmas. Think about incorporating a string light into a garland and running it up the banister. Likewise these lights can create a great effect on your fireplace mantle. Given the flexible nature of these lights it is very easy to be creative. Some people use string lights in their homes year round. Coil some lights on the top of your cupboards to create a soft lighting effect in your kitchen when you don't want the glare of the overhead lights on.

String lights come in all sorts of different colors. The most common for Christmas time are green, red and white. However, you can also find yellow and blue. The color white can be icy white or warm white. They also come in all sorts of different lengths. They generally start at 9 to 12 feet. Adapters are also available to join two strands together to make a single longer strand.

Rope lights are very economical to operate. They use 80-90 per cent less energy than conventional Christmas lights. Some brands boast a 200,000 hour bulb life. Most brands also come with a limited warranty.

It is easy to find a 12 foot long string lights for less than $15.00. At the price you could add a variety of different string lights to your Christmas lighting scheme.