Picture of Blue Outdoor LED Christmas Lights, house front bushes decorated.

Outdoor Christmas Light Decorating Ideas

Here we share outdoor Christmas light decorating ideas pictures of some of our outdoor holiday light ideas here. Why?  Because we wish to suggest some possibilities for your next Christmas decorating project with lights. We illustrate some of the many types of LED lights available too.  Finally, we provide general decorating and safety tips for all decorating with Xmas lights.

Outdoor Christmas Light Decorating Ideas Pictures

LED Christmas lights offer perhaps the most vivid hues you can buy in a highly efficient, low heat holiday light set as the pictures of our outdoor Christmas light display below show.  Much more vibrant than incandescent Christmas lights, and cheaper to operate too.  Since blue is our favorite color, we’ve decorated the house with that color outdoor light decorations for nearly a decade, and this house appeared in the local newspaper back in 2010.

Use Lots of Outdoor Lights

For the most eye-striking outdoor Christmas light ideas, use as many LED light strings as you can afford and safely power.  Decorate everything on your lawn and home that will hold lights.  Adorn all bushes, trees, banisters, railings, plants, fences, windows, and posts, with many little lights.  Large, high power lamps aren’t really necessary for achieving an awe-inspiring effect.  Many smaller lamps creates a more impressive display than fewer but larger units.  You can never have too  many LED lights.  Based on neighbor comments, the more we placed, the more compliments we got.

Of course, with lots of lights often comes lots of extension cords.  Follow our tips for using extension cords safely, to get ideas for best extension cord selection and proper usage.





With the extremely low power consumption of LED strings (roughly five to ten watts per string), it’s much harder to overload extension cords, even when connecting many strings into the same cord.  Nonetheless, know the power rating of each string, and assure that the sum total of all strings in a particular branch does not exceed the maximum power rating of any extension cords and cables feeding that branch.  Also, keep in mind the maximum power rating of the branch circuit itself.

Preferably, outdoor Christmas decorations should have their own separate ground fault interrupter circuit (GFIC).  Do not operate any Xmas lights outside unless they’re plugged into a GFIC outlet, or a GFIC adapter.

LED Christmas lights outdoors, oue house front view, showing miniature lights on bushes and door wreath, as well as some C9 LEDs on the front fence.
LED Christmas lights outdoors, our house front view, showing miniature lights on bushes and door, as well as some C9 LEDs on the front fence.

Use Certified Safe Outdoor Christmas Lights Only

All LED light strings in these pictures were tested by Underwriters Laboratories for safety compliance.  Indeed, whether you’re decorating indoors or out, always assure that your Christmas lights have been adequately designed to protect against electric shock.  Keep the light strings themselves in plain sight during the day to minimize tripping hazards.  As shown next, we used outdoor strands of C9 LED lights around the picket fence, C3 Xmas lights around the tree trunks, and miniature LEDs on the bushes, porches, railings, and plants.

For outdoor applications, be sure to use only lights that clearly state that they may be used safely outdoors.  This not only reduces the possibility of electric shock, but the bulbs themselves tend to hold up better; they do not rust or corrode in the weather as much as a comparable indoor string of lights might.  Also, the light cords have UV stabilized insulation, that will crack less in the cold after long weeks in the sun.

Picture of Blue LED Xmas lights outdoors, house front fence with C9 LED bulb strings, and miniature blue LEDs, wrapped around big blue spruce tree trunks. Outdoor Christmas Light Decorating Ideas.
Blue LED Xmas lights outdoors, house front fence with C9 LED bulb strings, and miniature blue LEDs, wrapped around big tree trunks.

Decorate Low to the Ground if Heights Scare You

If you’re not comfortable on tall ladders or otherwise afraid of heights, do not decorate on roofs or spouting areas; especially if you live in a multi-story home.  If fear prevents you from climbing with a calm and steady gait, then avoid adorning those high places.  Often, the jitters, more than the height itself, can trigger falls. And besides, in this particular season, the highest above the ground any of these decorations were, was eight feet.

If you must have some lights up high, then use only the safest fiberglass ladders.  Avoid metal ladders, not only because at this time of year, they can be too cold to handle, but also because they tend to be heavier and thus, harder to wield than fiberglass.  We used a Werner 8-foot fiberglass V ladder to put up the higher lights on the trees, as shown next.  With the ladder collapsed, we propped it against each tree, and climbed up one rung for every two or three wrap-arounds of the light strings. The tree bark could be pried out enough to anchor light cords for the most part.  But at the top, we either tied the string to a small branch, or tapped in a 2” roofing nail, and wrapped the light cord around that.

Picture of LED Outdoor Christmas lights, our house front south west corner. This shows bushes, spruce trees, and porch railing adorned with outdoor LED light strings.
LED outdoor Christmas lights, our house front south west corner. This shows bushes, spruce trees, and porch railing adorned with outdoor LED light strings.

Outdoor Christmas Light Decorating Ideas: Decorate Deep into the Trees and Bushes

To create a shimmering, twinkling effect for passers by as they walk by, put lights deep inside trees and bushes.  Don’t just decorate the outer edges.  Instead of just wrapping in a circular spiral shape, use a zig-zag layout.  Put the points of the zigs near the center of the tree.





True.  You’ll need more light strings doing it this way.  But you’ll create a more stunning and vivid, brighter and glittering, sparkling effect as a result. We did this on the arborvitae bushes and hedges, as shown in the next picture.

The vividness of those hundreds of blue LEDs was stunning. Drivers on the street reported seeing lots of sparkles. They saw the lights on the far side of the bush, filtering through the bush branches as they passed.  Wrap lights around protruding leaves and small branches to hold them in place, or strap them down with bag ties.

Picture of our outdoor LED Christmas lights, house, west side, front bushes decorated.
Outdoor LED Christmas Lights, house front bushes decorated.

For Every Straight Edge, Run a String of Outdoor Lights

On our south porch, we ran the blue LEDs along the bottom of the upper lattice work.  We wrapped them around banisters, stretched them down the sides of the wheelchair ramp, and draped them around the door.  We also hung blue and white LED snowflake lights from the lattice.

To protect electrical connections, route the lights such that the plugs at each end lay under the roof or banister.  Keep these out of direct rainfall and sunlight.  Also, where possible, hang plug connections vertically. That way. they do not touch the ground or anywhere rainwater or melting snow might build up.

Picture of our LED Christmas light decorations outdoors, house south porch, showing lighted snowflakes, and small LED strings on porch railings and banisters. Outdoor Christmas Light Decorating Ideas.
LED Christmas light decorations outdoors, house south porch, showing lighted snowflakes, and small LED strings on porch railings and banisters.

Anchor All Outdoor Christmas lights to Stop Them from Blowing in the Wind

The snowflake lights in the next picture often would swing violently.  They’d batter the lattice and beam posts, cracking their cases, and fraying the wires.  So we tied thin, nearly invisible fishing line between the upper lattice and the banister, near each flake.  Then, we tied the snowflake light to that string.  This stopped the swaying in the wind, even on the windiest of days.  A solid, sway-free mounting protects the lights. Plus, it quiets things down on the porch as well.

Outdoor Christmas light decorating ideas pictures. Picture of our LED outdoor Christmas lights. house south porch wheelchair ramp.
LED outdoor Christmas lights. house south porch wheelchair ramp.
Picture of Blue LED Xmas Lights Outdoors, our home south yard, showing fence, spruce tree, ditch bridge, and ramp decorations.
Blue LED Xmas Lights Outdoors, our home south yard, showing fence, spruce tree, ditch bridge, and ramp decorations.

Decorate Doors and Windows both Inside and Outside

Since doors are so reachable, decorating them with brilliance should be no problem; not even for the novice home Xmas decorator.  As shown next, we trimmed around the outer edge of the exterior door.  Then, we decorated an artificial wreath with blue LEDs and a blue and white ribbon.  Penn State country here after all. Finally, we hung that wreath on the storm door with a brass flat hook.





Also, don’t leave the inside of your windows bare.  Though not shown in these pictures, we often place matching blue LED candles window centers.  One per window.  Then, we run a light string around the inside edges of each window.

Picture of our LED Christmas lights outdoors, on decorated wreath hanging on west door at this home.
LED Christmas lights outdoors, on decorated wreath hanging on west door at this home.

Replace Porch Light Bulbs with Matching Color LED or CFL Bulbs for the Season

At the left center of the next picture, note the blue compact fluorescent bulb glowing in the porch light fixture.  LED bulbs are much less affected by cold weather than the CFLs.  Besides, our bulb below was glowing brightly when we took this picture, because the weather was pretty warm.  CFL bulbs glow dimly in the cold, and may not brighten fully in extremely cold weather. But unless the temps are very cold, CFLs usually warm to full brightness within several minutes of turning them on.

Picture of our LED Christmas lights outdoors, picket fence with C9 weatherproof LED lamps decorating it. Outdoor Christmas Light Decorating Ideas.
LED Christmas lights outdoors, picket fence with C9 weatherproof LED lamps decorating it.

Blue LED Xmas lights really make your home stand out; especially in our case, as we were the only ones in the area who decorated so obsessively with them.  Even today, five years after we left that home, people still say they miss seeing them.  The vividness of blue LEDs cements them into the memories of those who enjoy them.  Why?  Because people still aren’t yet used to seeing such intense blue hues.  So if you’re looking to see cars slow as the drive by your display, go with blue LEDs.  Your home will be the talk of the town.

Related Posts to Outdoor Christmas Light Decorating Ideas

    1. Blue LED Christmas Lights Decorating Outdoors Tips, Examples
    2. Benefits of LED Lighting, Advantages
    3. Extension Cord Safety Tips, Help, Advice
    4. LED Light Bulb Picture Gallery
    5. What is the Color of a Neon Light
    6. Compact Fluorescent Lamp Advantages and Disadvantages (CFL)

References for Outdoor Christmas Light Decorating Ideas

    1. Extension Cord Safety Tips
    2. What are Blue LED Christmas Lights?
    3. Where to Buy   Blue LED Christmas Lights

Revision History

    • 2019-05-17: Tweaked the targeting for ‘Outdoor Christmas Light Decorating Ideas’ and added tags.
    • 2017-03-31: Originally published.