White or Colored Christmas lights on house? Or... none at all..

[flygal]

I frankly think the white thing is overdone and hate hate hate the icicle lights. But is colored tacky? I would prefer none - but my 6 year old threatened to run away if we don't decorate. My treehugger DH would prefer none but are there low energy ones? We have a huge evergreen out front we could hang lights on - is that adequate?

[SeattleGirl]

1. I do white. It accentuates the ornaments on my tree.

My family does colored lights, and those are really nice too.

[VenusRising]

2. If you decide to mainly decorate the evergreen...

maybe add some of those white candles in every window. I like the idea that they are put there to guide our loved ones home. Appropriate now that there is a war going on. They are usually pretty cheap and some are battery operated, so less electricity used. Also, a wreath on the door with lights might be cool. You can get small strands of lights that are also battery operated with a couple of AAs. If you use the rechargeable batteries, even better!

Good luck with the 6 year old.

:hi:

[Lasher]

6. That's what we do, white candles in all the windows

And Mrs. Lasher makes me trim all the way around the roof with great big white lights. I feel like Chevy Chase. One night last year a plane tried to land on our house.

[Omphaloskepsis]

3. I hate the huge ones...

I prefer white but the colored ones are ok too. I think the key is being subtle about it. A strand that lines the roof line and maybe a few in the tree. Less is more. And the tacky wire-frame reindeer and inflatable Santa's need to go away.

edit :: I need to read what I type before hitting that damn button.

[Jamastiene]

4. Why segregate?

Why not put a nice mixture of colors and whites up?
:sarcasm: I'm just kidding, but actually, a mixture looks best to me.

I'm a big Christmas lights "watcher." I don't go nuts over Christmas and don't even decorate my own at all (cannot afford it), but I do sometimes make a trip sometime on the days leading up to Christmas to look at the lights. The ones I always like best have lots of lights of all different colors. The ones I like the least (from a spectator sport/watcher's point of view) are the all white ones. The prettiest I have seen yet looked like there were mostly white lights with colored lights in various places to embellish the white "base." Now, those are nice displays.

Okay, I freaked myself out a little with that. Is there a such job as "exterior decorator?" I'd love that job. I never realized I liked the lights THAT much. I'm going back to being cynical now. :evilgrin:

[Scooter24]

5. LED lights are your best choice for energy savings

but they are much more expensive than your normal Christmas light.

I'm doing a simple roof outline and then decorating some trees in the yard, all using white LED lights. They cost almost $10 for a box of 60, which is about 25 feet in length. I find that the LED's are also much brighter than your standard light.

A box of standard 100-count lights would cost about $3 a box.

We also line the perimeter of the yard and walkways in C9 lights using stakes.

[lost-in-nj]

7. I use both

when we do our banister outside we put on white first then colored...
also when we had a real tree , I used to put white lights down the middle of it and colored lights on the outside... it looked like the tree glowed from the inside..

:)


lost

[SPKrazy]

8. sounds adequate

low energy ones? I don't know if they use much but i've never heard of low energy ones.

:hi:

[TommyO]

9. Multi-color C9's all the way!

Sure, they suck electricity, but there is nothing better than seeing a house decorated tastefully with them. IMHO, of course.

[porphyrian]

10. Christmas decorations are supposed to be tacky.

Unless your house is being featured in Martha Stewart's magazine or something, go for gaudy.

[sniffa]

11. if done right, colored

see:

[LeftyMom]

14. sniffa, I love you.

That is hilarious.

[Beaverhausen]

19. that's hilarious!

:rofl:

[Dr. Strange]

12. Colored Christmas lights? Excuse me?

You mean Christmas lights of color, right?
Did you think this was Freekyrepublic? Mind your manners!

[FloridaJudy]

13. Tibetan prayer flags.

My problem is that the door-to-door fundies keep ripping mine down. Otherwise they're the solution to all my outdoor decorating needs.

[mzteris]

15. Colored lights can hypnotize.

Sparkle someone else's eyes. Now woman, I said get away. American woman, listen what I say. . .

[yellowdogintexas]

16. I love the white lights, they make me think of snow and ice and

things we don't have much of down here. I also like red. We have a bay window with a hedge under it and we do the hedge in solid red mini lights, and sometimes I mix in some white. I have a wreath in the entry way with white mini lights, and the tree is in the bay window , with white and multi strands of lights. Lots of them. Target has mixed red and white combo lights which I find interesting and may acquire for my hedges. I am thinking of a garland around my front door this year.


Colored is tacky if you have umpteen strings of say blue lights and then the oddly placed and out of pocket sting of say multicolored. My neighbors across the street have blue icicle lights on their roof, all the way across until the end where there is one multicolored strand; drives me nuts. Or if all your blue lights are different colors of blue. I have a problem with the randomness of it all.

When I am feeling really ambitious, I hang a lit garland (white mini lights again) over my french doors which are across the room from the bay and a pair of wreaths on the doors. They have gold and white ribbons, white lights, and there is gold fishnet on the garland. It is a pretty effect, but the gold fishnet sheds all over the place.

My decorating is directly related to where my husband is at the critical week of tree construction. If he is here, big tree goes up. If he is not getting here until nearly Christmas Eve, I have a backup prelit tree that can sit on a table top, and all we put on it ornament wise are the new ones we added to our collection during the previous year,(Because they are not in storage upstairs!) and it is fun to open them on Christmas morning and put them directly on the tree. We may also put things we can easily pull down from upstairs without bringing down ALL the big boxes of stuff.

This year may only be the red lights on hedge, the garland and stuff on the french doors, the front entry wreath, and the little tree. It is looking like we will be lucky if he gets here by Christmas Eve!

[DarkTirade]

17. Why's it gotta be about the color, huh?

White or Colored... it doesn't matter, man. They're all the same inside.

[Whoa_Nelly]

18. Multi..and add software

Am sure the neighbors would appreciate it! ;evilgrin:

(this has to be the most obnoxious display EVER!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Hy97GNQxI&feature=related

And then these same folks went on to addmore to the show:
(one of the many they've posted of their home)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfbaOTgCTsA&feature=related

[Dulcinea]

20. Colored lights are prettier.

Everyone had the white ones in our neighborhood for a while, & everyone's house looked exactly the same. Yawn.