Outdoor Christmas lights can be a truly magical part of the holiday season. From simple holiday lights to elaborate light displays, lights can add so much to your home and neighborhood. If you’re unsure of how to make your outdoor Christmas decorations and lighting stand out this year, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
In this piece, we’ve gathered some best Christmas lighting ideas for the trees, the house, lawn, balcony & more!
Outdoor Christmas Lights Ideas for Trees & Bushes
Creating an amazing holiday mood outdoors with lights is never more wanted than for Christmas. And there are so many ways and options! Let’s start from the lawn, as getting the glittery, sparkly effect in front of the house is always much wanted.
Christmas lights on the outdoor trees (and bushes)
Outdoor string lights are one of the simplest yet most impressive lightings to use outside of the house. You can decorate basically anything with them, including trees and bushes. Make use of LED string lights for the decoration of your house and allow your eyes to really enjoy the true wonder of Christmas.
There are basically two ways of covering trees with string and fairy lights – you can either wrap the lights around the bush or go make a zigzag with it. The first option is better for maple, birch, and oak, the second one for spruce, pine, cedar.
A great video guide on how to install lights on the trees is available here.
You can choose the type of strings you’re going to work with. They can be either battery-operated or regular plug-ins. So if you do not have an outdoor socket you can still add Christmas charm to your lawn.
Christmas Outdoor Icicle Lights
Icicle lights are a variation on regular string lights. They can make installing the string lights on trees and bushes so much easier (as you do not have to wrap them endlessly). They’re doing especially well on the trees with tall trunks, but proper icicle lights are going to be amazing on bushy trees as well.
There are plenty of options available so you can have them as colorful as you wish – from white to a variety of colors in each string (as in the picture above).
Outdoor Christmas Lights Ideas for the House, Front Lawn & Walkway
To make your home glow and sparkle this holiday season, transform it into a massive glow-in-the-dark light show. With just a few strung lights, you can make a simple glow effect for the façade and porch light. You can add an extra level of brilliance by using other colors and types of light, which you’ll find below.
An impressive mix of outdoor Christmas lights on a facade and in the garden
Outdoor Christmas lighting, like any outdoor type of lighting, to look good needs to have a balanced plan (you can learn much more about outdoor lighting design from my no-nonsense outdoor lighting guide post available here). And the lighting in the picture above is well-balanced, but also festively over-the-top!
I enjoy a lot how they mixed different types of light and made it coherent simply by keeping the temperature of light the same for every fixture. They illuminated everything: facade, doors, doorway, garlands, wreath, bushes, and trees. And the effect is amazing!
Icicle lights hanging from the roof
Hanging the icicle lights on the roof is a pretty classic move, but it works! In the pictures above you can see houses in very different locations temperature-wise. But this fixture works everywhere, not only by adding sparkle but also by imitating snow.
Icicle lights can be added as the only type of outdoor Christmas lighting and part of a bigger composition. Always a hit!
Outdoor Christmas light arches
If you like to make a statement with your outdoor Christmas lighting arches are a direction to follow. Imagine illuminating a path in front of your house with them – this is something you cannot omit.
With a proper color, they can also be a part of a design I’d call “a gingerbread house” – which is visible in the second picture above. It screams celebration and is so fun!
Christmas Outdoor Lamp Post
You’re looking for something classic? Adding an outdoor Christmas lamp post in front of your doors is going to make the entry to your house look elegant and ready for the holidays. The big advantage of lamp posts is they, direct visitors, to your doors and make your house inviting.
Christmas outdoor wreaths with lights
You can use all the strings of lights you want, but they’re not going to do you much good if you don’t have some type of decorative embellishment to frame them. The easiest way to achieve a dramatic effect with Christmas lights, though, is to wrap your wreaths or branches with them.
Additionally, when you put a wreath with lighting on your doors you create the focal point for your front lawn. You can make such a wreath a center of a bigger picture, as in the last picture. There is a garland with lighting, side lamps, and bushes with lighting on the sides of doors.
If you want to prepare your entryway for Christmas you can use one of my 24 Ideas for Christmas Front Door Decorations. This is my other post with above-the-door decor, garlands, wreaths, flowers, traditional stuff, and more. If you’re looking for inspiration that is the spot to visit.
Walkway full of sugar canes
If your goal is to create a winter wonderland sugar cane pathway lights can do miracles to your lawn looks. With multiple color tree lights and holiday decor, they make your visitors smile.
The big plus of these lights is they’re easy to add to a lot. So if you enjoy the look you can implement it easily.
Star string lights for the garden
If you miss flowers in the winter you can easily create them in your garden with star string lights. In the picture above they make a lovely composition with deer decor and a Christmas tree illumination. This picture shows also balanced outdoor Christmas lighting.
Star flowers can be installed easily and make you smile as long as you’ll decide to keep holiday decor outside. Don’t they look amazing?
Christmas outdoor lighted decorations
There are so many goals that can be achieved with illuminated Christmas decor. There is everything one may dream about in the picture above – nativity scene, carolers, sleigh with reindeer, and more!
“Merry Christmas” outdoor lighted sign
What a cool idea making a “Merry Christmas” sign is! First of all, you illuminate your house so more people can see it. Why not use the opportunity to wish them joy and happiness?
I like this idea a lot, as it has much-needed thinking about others included. And at the same time looks amazing.
Reindeer outdoor Christmas decorations
There are so many illuminated reindeers waiting for you to adopt them. They can be structural, or flat, filled in, or not, with or without sleigh, but they always are fun to have.
This is a classic your children and your neighbors’ children are going to appreciate. To make it look good remember to balance it well on the lot.
Christmas outdoor projection lights
If you do not want to work a lot and have a great effect anyways consider buying a projector. With it, you do not have to hang anything, look for transformers, nor do any technical work. You plug it in and receive an effect you can enjoy.
The one in the picture above is pretty unique, as usually, the projector shows snowflakes or other simple patterns. The colors on the facade look amazing though, don’t you think?
Outdoor Christmas Lights Ideas for Porch & Entrance
The entrance is a crucial area to illuminate during the winter holidays. An inviting house should have an inviting entrance. How to achieve this goal? Here are my propositions.
Christmas outdoor garland with lights
Garland filled with lights, baubles, or red bows screams Christmas. If the classic look is something you enjoy it’s worth thinking about where you can add it to your estate. It looks great around your doorway and amazing on the porch. The style can be easily transformed by the type of decor added. To me, the last picture shows a dream come true.
I enjoy a lot of garlands made out of natural branches, as they not only look great but also smell amazing. These branches can be a waste in the Christmas tree industry, but being added to proper areas of the house can change it drastically!
String lights around the doorway
Adding string lights around the doorway instantly makes the house more inviting. The closer the lights are installed to the door the more they stress this area of the house (it is much more visible in the second picture). And what says welcome more than showing where your doors are?
I enjoy star-shaped string lights hung above doors in the second picture too. Don’t they look amazing?
Christmas outdoor lanterns
Christmas outdoor lanterns make your front porch totally special and festive! A lighted lantern really adds some beauty and you don’t have to do any work.
These lanterns feature traditional Christmas colors and details to spruce up any outdoor decoration. They make a great gift for outdoor Christmas decor enthusiasts.
Hint: If you’re afraid of keeping candles unattended outside you can buy electric ones or put string lights into lanterns (2nd picture).
Apartment balcony outdoor Christmas lights ideas
A balcony can be an amazing space during the winter holidays. Yes, it is smaller than a yard, but it can deliver an amazing mood and be a statement.
Icicle lights on the balcony
The two pictures above show how amazing balconies decorated for Christmas can be. The first picture shows a sparkling effect that can be achieved with fairy lights. The balcony has a real tree on it (also decorated with fairy lights). Do you know they’re much more likely to last if kept outside?
The second picture shows a more traditional set-up with garland & baubles. I prefer warm lights color, especially on the white finish of walls.
Christmas fairy lights for balcony
How about adding the light curtain above the balcony? It looks so elegant and has to bring a lot of sparkly lights to the inside of the apartment. This balcony is a focal point of the whole building, isn’t it?
I enjoy the snowflake decor on a balcony railing too. It looks like every area that was possible to fill with light was used.
Christmas outdoor lighting: Deers on the balcony!
For those who live in the apartment but love deer decor: you can have it too. Smaller versions usually are going to work better for you (and fit in the flowerpots), but you may have enough space for more than 1!
The lit trees on the sides are adding even more charm to this balcony. It has to be fun to view it from the inside.
A holiday garland with lights
The garland in the picture is extraordinary, massive, and filled with lights. This is a true winter holidays statement. On the classicist balcony, it looks simply amazing and monumental.
If you enjoy old Hollywood glam this one can be a great addition to your balcony.
Now it’s your turn
I hope you find my outdoor Christmas lights ideas interesting.
Now I’d like to hear from you: which type of outdoor Christmas lighting did you like the most and would like to use this season?
Was it the projector, or icicle lights on the trees?
And did you already know all the types or did some of the outdoor Christmas ideas surprised you?
Either way, let me know by leaving a quick comment below.
