I put the multi-coloured lights on the roofline and the patio railing. And I have two planters at the front door where I put some festive branches, greenery, berries and pinecones and put some battery operated white lights throughout that display. At night you can't see the arrangement but the lights light up the area.

So I like a mix but I do agree that the LED lights just aren't bright and garish enough.

I love the look of a simple strand of incandescent C9 multi colored bulbs outlining the eaves of a roof.

i have some stored away (bought ahead for when they started coming after incandescents) but we have not hung them in several years since we have a deep pitch on our roof and DH shouldn't be climbing up there anymore. We just spoke tonight about coming up with some type of permanent hooks so we could simply pay someone to rehang the lights each year.

LEDs are garish to my eye. Actually driving down a street full hurts my eyes. They give me a commercial vibe like I'm on street of casinos. I don't really get the comments that say they aren't garish enough. Old fashioned lights simply glow.

Never was a fan of mini lights but again I find many of the newer versions too garish but OK if they are now overused covering everything in sight. A shrub or a tree, yes. A whole house, no.

Chasers and flashers are the worst.

If I'm in a mood for old-fashioned, quiet and classic I like the white ones. If I want to feel happy, fun and energetic I like the colored ones. So except for the Christmas tree we don't do any other kind of lights, I'll look elsewhere for my lights fix. There used to be little twinkling lights that didn't all go off together or went in a pattern, it was a random twinkle - those are the only blinking lights I've ever liked. But tastes change. I remember when the silver aluminum fake trees came out with the 3-color wheel that turned and made the tree turn colors, I was a kid and I just thought that was the most beautiful thing in the world! LOL! But if I did see one now it would probably bring back childhood memories, I don't know. I also remember the old lights that bubbled. I still like those. The ones that they make now aren't as cool as the old ones. I remember we would drive around at night when I was a kid and I loved to see the windows and houses lit up in different ways. Even a single candle light in a window was magical to me. I remember my Mom always loved to see all blue lights. Funny the little things we remember.

Arcy-- Beautiful place. Yours is the kind of landscaping that would look beautiful year round.

I also like the old fashioned multi colored lights.

Beautiful, arcy!

I’m in the same camp as your are, I miss the old fashioned colored lights. They are my favorite. Very pretty Arcy!

I like white ones on our tree because I use a lot of bright colored ornaments. Outside, I can deal with multi-colored lights. But we don’t decorate much except for a lighted wreath on the door. DH’s hip replacement prevented him from getting everything done outside this year as he normally does, so I just put the wreath on the mailbox and on the driveway columns and called it done.

I love any lights!

Some of the new colored light strings don't have white interspersed, and I don't care for that so much; I feel like they need the white to lighten it up. And I prefer warm white over the slightly bluish white. (But don't get me started on the house a block down from us, with the tree in the yard whose branches are wrapped in white lights to the point that the glow is visible all the way down the street. They could go with half the lights and be much better, especially for the house across the street from them!)

A simple wreath on a door, or lights on a lamp post, that's one of my favorites. Roping along a fence with a couple of bows. Those are the lovely "Christmas card" looks.

Years ago a house in our area had a display I just adored. The lights on the bushes were green with occasional, ever-so-slightly larger red ones, so that it looked like berries. The lights along the roofline were about 3/4 blue, 1/4 white, like a starry sky. Oh, it was so peaceful.

I prefer a more simple look.....a wreath with a spot light or intertwined in a garland, Dislike the newer blue cast ones.

White lights on the door garlands, the fence wreath, and the 3 deer in the backyard. Also have a string of the old C9 incandescents (multicolored) on an obelisk and the new C9 LEDs on the arbor. Costco had them for $9.99, half the price of everyone else.

GE LED C9s

Indoors I have white lights on the hutch garland, the kitchen window, bathroom window and in a glass vessel with clear glass ornaments. If we put up a tree I'll use globe-shaped, multi-colored LED lights.

Also have a few strings of the battery operated warm white mini dewdrop LEDs. Two are on book shelves and the other in a clear glass vase.

I think the white lights are beautiful.......the kid in me likes the colored. I have both. Just white light candles in the window and two trees with white lights, mantel garland has white lights as does the garland on the dining room hutch. I have two fiber optic trees with colored lights. My kitchen tree, which will go up next weekend is a real tree and will have colored lights for the grandkids.

Many LED Christmas lights flash at about 60 Hz. Many people don't even notice, to me it is somewhere between uncomfortable and painful. The effect is even more noticeable in my peripheral vision, so averting my gaze doesn't help. A couple years ago in downtown Charlotte those sort of lights were all over along the streets and I simply had to leave.

Just yesterday while driving home, a house one street over had gone all in, festooning their house and yard with lights, including a couple dozen all-white strands from the peak of their roof to the eaves. The roof lights were all flashing in turn, and my first thought was "Oh look its the epilepsy house."

A couple of days ago at a Christmas party the hosts has an artificial tree they bought at Costco (IIRC) it came with the lights already installed on the branches, and also had a remote to change from all-white to multicolored, and had various different twinkle patterns as well.

Yes!!!!! Bob_cville understands and perfectly states what many people find so annoying about some LED lights. The same effect can happen in heavy commute traffic in darkness or rain with the new LED tail lights. It hurts the brain.

At one time we had an aluminum tree with a colored light wheel to shine on it in four colors: red, green, blue, and amber. I liked that a lot as a child. I don't decorate for Christmas in my house here, partly because it is too small, and family does not visit us at Christmas, since most of them live in Texas. I stopped going back to Texas for holidays after my parents died.

I prefer colored lights, but I'm okay with the white lights for certain applications, but I still like colored ones better, even on houses. A few years ago (maybe 10) white lights were all the rage here, but that trend had passed. When we lived in Venice, next to Marina Del Rey, there were more Hanukkah lights than Christmas lights, and they were mostly blue, which I liked. We lived about three blocks from Chabad Jewish Community Center in Marina Del Rey.

Lars, my cousins had an aluminum tree in the 60s. I thought it was so cool. Too bad the photo isn't in color.

I want lots and lots of lights on my tree! I like to mix in the old fashioned C7 lights in multiple colors AND I want the white lights as wells. Did I mention I like a LOT of lights on my tree?

Here's a picture from a previous Christmas - mine won't go up until Dec 18th.

I have to say, I really don't have a preference. I've seen all one color, mixed colors, white lights in some beautiful displays. My effort pales in comparison to what some are willing to do ;0)

My own lights are white. White icicles all along the front of the house and attached same height garage. It's a long house and a lot of lights. All LEDs but somehow I have a couple of strings of cool white where the rest are warm and those go at the far bedroom end where I hope no one notices the difference in hue.

White lights on my tree. I've accumulated several of the battery strings of lights too and those are fun to tuck in unexpected places, I find them really cheery.

I have always had coloured lights and 4 years ago replaced all the incandescent lights with LED lights because I had noticed how much my electricity useage went up. I use a lot of lights on my tree. I really didn't like the colour of the LED lights especially the blue and they didn't seem bright enough but I liked the money I saved. The last time I put my tree up was 3 years ago because I had been sick with the flu one year, the next year my sister died in December and last year I had all the stuff from my sister's apartment after I cleaned it out and it was sitting in bins in my living room. This year I went out and bought a beautiful new tree from Lowes, the prettiest shaped artificial tree I had ever seen, but it came with white lights. I never noticed until I got it home that the 1000 lights on the tree were incandescent and not LED. I have the tree almost 2/3 decorated and I have found am loving the white lights. The ornaments show up better.

I do like the LED colors, the LED whites not so much. We have just a few items now with incandescent lighting (white snowflakes and a huge wreath that we made from grapevine and wrapped with green mini lights with red C7 bulbs). I don't like flashing lights too much, they make my head hurt.

I think the all white lights are absolutely beautiful, in/on other people's homes and businesses. In my home, they are far too boring for my tastes, I like LOVE colored lights! But NO FLASHERS! ! PLEASE! ! ! Inside or out! To me, they scream commercialism and guarantee a full fledged migraine. Spending even one day of the Christmas season in a darkened bedroom with a cool cloth over my eyes and a pan by the bed for vomiting is one day too many.

Rusty

I like C7 or C9, multicolor incandescent the best -- or LED with a more opaque finish (hard to find, but they exist) for that softer glow.

When I moved into my neighborhood, all white was THE thing -- but the past few years I have noticed a movement to multicolored. With the small homes we have that are fairly close together, all white interspersed with multi sort of disturbs the "flow" if you can imagine what I mean.

What I really dislike is when someone uses mini lights on one part of the house and C9 on another, or all white here and multicolor there. I also dislike the inflatables, but they are very much enjoyed by children, I notice!

Like cherryfizz, I have switched to LED to save on the electric bill -- it really did make a difference. This year I may be saving even more because...

I spent about 45 minutes searching through my boxes of decorations and all through the basement last evening looking for my outdoor lights. Can't find them! I used them last year, but I didn't put up a tree so I guess I didn't have the boxes out and didn't put the outdoor strings back with the other things. My basement isn't that big so I can't figure where they are hiding!

We don't hang outdoor lights, I just put fresh winterberries and other seasonal branches in the planters. We do have white cafe lights indoors, on the Norfolk pine and some of the other plants.

But the people across from us (2 story house) go all out every year. Everything from the upstairs balcony to the front door is wrapped in red or golden lights, looks very pretty and festive. A few other neighbors have decorative laser lights that project seasonal images on their house. Looks pretty and nothing to take down after Christmas.

colored lights on my tree

red and white outside. we simplified over the last few years. just a big wreath on our front window and garland around the lamp post. candles in all front windows. used to do the bushes and one tree....

do not like anything blinking on outside decorations. i like the outside of the house to be uniform. i'm not in favor of a mix of all different size bulbs, different bulbs. mix of multi and white... just too much.

i think the holiday 'commands' simplicity & reverence. i don't like the commercialism & overload of decorations.