How To Hang Outdoor Christmas Lights

The first thing you will want to do before you hang your outdoor Christmas lights is to make sure that they all work. There is nothing more frustrating then hanging all of the lights to only find out that they do not work and its must easier to replace the bulbs while the light strands are on the ground Vs hanging from your roof. You also will want to have a couple of replacement bulbs standing by so if you should find a bad bulb you could just replace it on the spot and get back to hanging the rest of the Outdoor Christmas Lights.

The second step is to now take your light strings and unwind / un-tangle them and lay them out on the lawn or driveway from end to end making sure there is no knots. Now you will want to wind the lights up with one hand and coil them up with the other into a 12″ round loop. This will make it easy for you to install them when the time comes. Once you have coiled all your light strands you will now be ready to install the outdoor lights on your roof, doors, windows or even shrubs.

If you are installing your outdoor lights on the gutters you will need to get some outdoor light s-clips that will hang on to the gutter and also attached to the wire of the Christmas Lights. These s-clips are made from a clear, white or green plastic and can be bought anywhere that Christmas lights and accessories are sold. They usually come in packs of 25 / 50 and sell for around $2.99 and up depending on the size of the package. You will want to first attach the s-clip to the wire on your lights and then you will want to hang the s-clip from the gutter. You will want to place an s-clip around every 24″ or so of light strand. If you live in an area with lots of snow and rain you may want to place the s-clips every 12″ to help the light strands stay on better during heavy winter storms.

You also can install your outdoor Christmas lights on your doors and windows as well. You could take a couple of roofing or finish nails and tack them into each corner or the door or window and then hang the light strands from the nails. You also could put a few nails into the center of the top and sides of the window/door frames so you could also attach the wires of the lights to them. Always be sure to attach and install the strands of Christmas lights on the outside edge of the window frame so that the window can still be used without the lights getting in the way.

Installing lights on trees and bushes outside can also be fun and easy. You can drape the light strands over the bushes and then hold the lights into place with some twist ties. You will want to put a twist tie in all of the areas that you think the lights might fall off when a strong wind comes through. Twist ties are an affordable way to hold your outdoor Christmas lights into place on your bushes. The other alternative is to buy lights that are specially made for bushes. These lights are not sold in strands but as a netting that lays on top of the bush.

After you have installed all of your outdoor lights you will just have to run an electrical extension cord to power them all up. You could also hook your Christmas lights up to a timer so they can turn on and off at a certain time and that will save you money as well.