Your Ultimate Guide to Stringing Up (and Storing) Outdoor Holiday Lights

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Watching Clark Griswold fail at hanging up Christmas lights in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation may be a hilarious annual holiday tradition, but in real life, decorating failure is no laughing matter. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, around 15,000 people in the U.S. go to the emergency room every year for holiday decorating-related injuries. And no one is keeping statistics on the countless serious injuries my eyes suffer when I see neighbors with a half-ass light display. So let’s avoid all that unpleasantness with this ultimate guide to Christmas lights, from planning, to tools, tips, safety, and storage.

Make a Christmas light hanging plan

The time to think about how you’re going to hang your holiday lights is not when you’re up on the ladder, so first, sit down and make a comprehensive plan for lights before you do anything else. Here are some steps and things to keep in mind:

• Assess your space: Consider your roofline, windows, trees, shrubs, and walkways and decide what you’re going to light up. Then develop an overall vision for your light display.

• How much is enough: Decide whether you’d like a maximalist, minimalist, or traditionalist display.

• Choose a color scheme: A coherent look to your holiday lights is so important, I made a whole section about it below. Skip ahead if needed.

• Highlight architectural details: You want the lights to go around windows, roofs, and doorways.

• Decide on your lights: Do you want string lights, icicle lights, net lights, projectors?

• Props and other decorations: There are so many outdoor decorations available for all styles, from fairly understated displays to Santa in a pickup truck, that you kind of have to have something. Just make sure it fits in with the overall vibe. We’re going for coherence here.

• Measure it: Now that you know what you’re going for, it’s time to measure. The first step to measuring is to throw away your old tape measures and get a laser. Here’s a laser measurer for less than $30. Get something like this and you won’t have to climb a ladder to know how long your roofline is.

• Consider the power: Make sure you know where the outlets are and whether you have enough extension cords.

• Check your older lights: Part of planning is checking if the gear you already have is still working, so mix up some eggnog and make sure those old strings of lights still function.

Choose your color palette wisely

Anyone can throw some lights up, but throwing up lights with intention is what separates us from chimpanzees. Here’s some color theory for your Christmas light display:

• Pick a palette: The most obvious choice is red, green, and white, but consider other options like white, blue, and silver for a winter wonderland look, or red, white, and pink for candy cane vibes.

• Limit your colors: You could go for a maximalist, every color look, but it’s hard to pull-off without it looking like a Christmas thrift store.

• Be careful with the flair: If you’re going to have lights that twinkle, chase, or change color, make sure it’s part of an overall cohesive look. One flashing light amongst a bunch of static strings is not what you want.

Remember that LED Christmas lights are superior

If you’re still using those old-school incandescent mini bulbs, shame on you. Stop being a caveman. LED lights are better than incandescent in all of these ways:

• They’re cool: LED lights run at about half the heat of older style bulbs, so they are unlikely to set anything on fire, even if you try.

• They last forever: LEDs can run for tens of thousands of hours. They’ll outlive you.

• They use less energy: LEDs use about 10% of the energy that old school bulbs use.

• They are independent: Remember back in the day, when your whole string of lights was shot if one bulb went out? That’s the past, man. LEDs don’t care whether other LEDs are dead or not.

• They’re versatile: LEDs can be super bright or subdued. You can get LEDs that change color, blink, simulate a meteor shower, and other special effects. You can get LED lights that are controlled from your phone and powered by batteries. They’re just better.

Gather your supplies and tools

Having followed these steps, you should know exactly how many feet of lights you need and what color they should be, but that’s not the whole story. You need tools and other supplies, too.

• A decent ladder: Make sure your ladder is safe.

• Clips: You’ll need a ton of clips and hooks.

• Extension cords

• Gloves and zip ties

How to hang Christmas lights

Here’s some tips for actually hanging the lights:

• Safety first: Hanging holiday lights is the most embarrassing way to injure yourself. It’s just not worth it, so make doubly sure you have a plan for everything, don’t take any risks, and get a helper to hold the ladder.

• Start at the power source: Always begin where your lights will plug in. Starting elsewhere is a Griswold move that will ruin Christmas. Work outward from the outlet so you don’t run out of cord length mid-roofline.

• Re-test your lights: You should have already tested them, but test each string again before you string ’em up. It’s much easier to deal with a loose connection on the ground than up on a ladder.

• Use clips and hooks instead of nails: Nails can damage your house or even cause electrical fires, so don’t nail anything. Bonus: Hooks make taking everything down in January much easier.

• Hang lights evenly: Space out the bulbs so you don’t end up with a spaghetti look. Follow the lines of your house for the best looking display.

• Wrap trees and shrubs neatly: For trees, start at the trunk and work outward. For small bushes, wrap in a spiral pattern from bottom to top.

How to remove and store Christmas lights

When the holidays are over, it’s time to put everything back until next year. Resist the temptation to just clump everything up and throw it in boxes—you will not be happy with yourself next year. Do not just leave everything strung up either; you’re a civilized person.

• Reverse the installation: Do it all backwards. Remove lights starting from the farthest point from the outlet. Remove lights from trees from the outside-in and from the bottom up.

• Wrap carefully: To avoid a “ball of despair” next Christmas, wrap your lights around something—a makeshift spool or just a piece of cardboard work wonders.

• Label each strand: Denote where it went (roofline, bushes, tree, etc.) with a piece of masking tape and a Sharpie.

• Store hooks and clips: A dedicated container for hooks and clips is a must. Fishing tackle boxes work great for this.

• Store securely: Keep all your gear in a cool, dry place, in a plastic storage bin, so you can be ready for next year. Do not use cardboard boxes. Instead, get something like these Rubbermaid tubs.