5 Tips for Decorating Your Home With Holiday Lights

‘Tis the season! It’s an electrician’s favorite time of year when the lights really begin to shine. Maybe you go all out like the Griswold family or maybe you like to keep it traditional, but either way, adding holiday lights to your home this time of year is a beautiful way to light up your life.

Whether you decorate your home with holiday lights before Thanksgiving or strictly after, it’s never too early to learn a few tips from your friendly neighborhood electrician to help you decorate your home safely this season.

Inspect The Lights For Damage and Burnt Out Bulbs

First thing’s first, you’ll need to look through your string lights, outdoor lights, pre-lit candles and outdoor spotlights to ensure that the wires are still intact and that no bulbs are burnt out.

We’ve all been there. We’ve finally put the lights on the tree or hung them on the garland, go to plug them in and nothing. There’s a burnt-out bulb or the lights are too old. Inspecting the lights before you start decorating with them will save you time and heartache as well as keep you safe.

Be Mindful of Your Outlets

It can be tempting to plug all of your lights into one outlet for convenience’s sake, but this is an electrical hazard. By overloading your electrical outlets, you’re at risk of blowing a fuse and having all of your lights go dead.

Additionally, it’s best practice to not connect more than three strands of incandescent lights together, this can also cause a fuse to blow or even start an electrical fire. Instead, our team of electricians recommends using LED string lights for your Christmas decorations.

Hang Your Lights Wisely

Don’t grab the hammer and nails, staple gun or box of screws to hang your outdoor lights. Instead, get a box of plastic clips to safely hang your holiday decorations. The nails, staples or screws can puncture through the light strand and ignite a spark and result in a fire hazard.

Pro Tip: if you’re tired of hanging strands of Christmas lights on your roof, along the porch rails and through the trees in your yard for all to see, consider the Luxor Landscape Lighting System. With just the click of a button, you can have Christmas-themed lights glistening in your yard— it’s that simple.

Check Your Extension Cords

There are several safety tips when it comes to the extension cords you’re using for your holiday lights. First of all, as you’re checking your lights for any broken or burnt-out bulbs, you’ll also want to check your extension cords to ensure that no critters have chewed through the wires.

Next, be sure that you are using indoor extension cords for your indoor lights and outdoor extension cords for your outdoor lighting. Finally, no matter where you put them be sure not to overload the extension cords as this could become an electrical fire hazard.

And of course, be sure that wherever you put them, they are not a tripping hazard— no one needs to add a trip to the emergency room as part of their holiday festivities.

Turn The Lights Out

Whether you’re turning in for the night or going away for a holiday vacation, it’s important to turn out your lights. Many homeowners will use timers on their lights during the holiday season so that they never forget to give their lights a rest. Keeping lights on 24/7 during the holiday season will not only run up your electricity bill and shorten the lifespan of your lights, but it’s also an electrical safety hazard.

Outdoor lighting is spectacular any time of the year, but there’s an extra special magic to it during the holidays. If you have questions about your home’s electrical safety or what types of lights you should or should not use or if your outlets can handle the number of cords plugged into them, give the team at NuBlue a call or book online and we’ll be there to light up your life this season.