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Holiday Lights: All White or Multi-Colored?

12-12-08 multicolored lights.jpg12-12-08 white lights.jpgYesterday we were contemplating wreaths, and today we're on to the lights. Do you have a preference in the color of yours? We've always just used white in our house - it's classic and looks great with the red and gold ornaments we use. But now when we see multi-colored lights, especially those fat old-school style ones strung outside, we can't help but smile - they just have a really happy look about them...

 
 

We must admit, for a tree our taste really hasn't changed. But the multi-colored strands are definitely growing on us, otherwise. Which do you prefer, and why?

Image of multicolored lights: Amber Rhea

Image of white lights: Kimberlyfaye

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Surveys, holiday decorating, christmas lights

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Comments (42)

WE prefer all clear.

posted by Daily Nuance on December 12th 2008 at 12:48pm
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Multi colored! My tree is aimed to make kids happy. It's not a design piece.

posted by honeybeeweddings on December 12th 2008 at 12:54pm
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I really like all-white Christmas lights. It has a timeless charm that to me, evokes images of Colonial Christmastide. My mother has always done the white lights, with little faux candles in the windows...warm and cozy. Paired with a simple wreath and evergreen garland, it just seems to capture the essence of an old-world holiday.

posted by Amber in Bahston on December 12th 2008 at 12:55pm
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As I was driving home a couple of nights ago, I noticed how many houses were completely adorned with all clear lights. I started thinking that en masse when all the other houses have it, it looks a bit boring, even though I am of the clear light persuasion. That said, this year I lit my house in color changing red-green spotlights between the clear lights to give it a bit more interest. The tree has clear lights and one red string run through it.

posted by Joey on December 12th 2008 at 12:59pm
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I actually like multi-colored. Clear is good for a classic look, but my tree has a blue and magenta theme, so the multi colored looks better and more fun.

I also agree about the old school big bulbs, I just love them, quite a few houses around my neighborhood still have them.

posted by Juliejulezzzzz on December 12th 2008 at 12:59pm
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How funny! I've been having the same nostalgia tugs at my heartstrings this year too. I've always been an "all clear mini lights" person with no twinkly funny business. It must be all the craziness of this year that has left me wishing for the simpler days of the big colorful bulbs of yore.

My neighbors did their house up in the big colorful bulbs this year and doggone it if it isn't the happiest looking house on the street.

posted by LilyC on December 12th 2008 at 12:59pm
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I like all white, but in different sizes so it looks like ice glistening.

posted by Lisa Hunter (Montreal) on December 12th 2008 at 1:01pm
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I like multi-color because I think white is a bit high-falutin. :)

Colored lights also evoke the 40s, 50s and 60s to me; a good time for Xmas design. :P

posted by amygdaloides on December 12th 2008 at 1:06pm
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Since the family grew up, the scheme has been white or a solid color. I don't mind multis. The ones I hate are the weird blinkers that leave part of the tree lit and part of it dark. Fading, chasing or alternately blinking lights can be used to good effect (though they're not always), but the old school blinkers just look tacky no matter what.

posted by whytephoenix on December 12th 2008 at 1:11pm
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Large, clear bulbs strung along the outside of the house.
Small clear worked into the tree, wreaths and garland.

posted by Seaside on December 12th 2008 at 1:15pm
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My dad has always done the big old school multicolored bulbs. I remember in high school, trying to get him to change it, but now I'm glad he was stubborn and still puts the same ones up every year.

posted by kgenesius on December 12th 2008 at 1:16pm
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We grew up with both: Clear candle lights in the windows and outside on the bushes, colored lights on the X-Christmas Tree inside.

This year I just did a simple wreath on the door with gold garland, but no lights. Inside however, I'm all about the colored lights, which cast a pretty colored glow to the outside.

It's been an economically depressing year. I feel we could use all the sparkly bright color we can get.

posted by Lizzy C on December 12th 2008 at 1:21pm
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I grew up with blue lights on our family tree. I don't see all-blue lights very often, but they always make me smile.

posted by ChzPlz on December 12th 2008 at 1:21pm
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Clear only.. colored lights are a challenge for me. They always seem to sparse when compared to the same amount of white lights... unless you truly commit a la "Clark Griswold". Having said that, this year I wired some colored lights in ice blocks along my pathway. They are color changing LED lights in rectangular blocks of ice. The nice thing is that I can have them all clear for dinner parties etc or colored for fun.

posted by Northern Dad on December 12th 2008 at 1:31pm
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Clear is great! But have ya'll seen the silvery-blue LED small lights? Gorgeous!

posted by darcidoodle on December 12th 2008 at 1:34pm
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i think the white lights on the tree show off ornaments best, but i love the big colored ones too, for outside. Also, I have a few strands that don't work anymore but look great in little vignettes around the house.

posted by ilovelamp on December 12th 2008 at 1:37pm
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Color all the way. I gave in to my husband's preference for white until this year when I just went out and bought color lights and put them up. A mixture of large and mini lights and I LOVE it. He now admits that they are way more festive and fun. Our decorations are all quirky and eclectic so it works for us.

I think the all white is very pretty too, but not as much my taste.

posted by Auburn on December 12th 2008 at 1:39pm
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White.

posted by kiljoywashere on December 12th 2008 at 1:47pm
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Clear lights all around the perimeter of my garden, and kept year round. Lights up the paths to the garden, with a no glaring effect. The bottom trunk of the trees have clear lights too.
For a festive look, I put a stand multi colored lights on an living tree from Last year.

posted by Boogs on December 12th 2008 at 1:51pm
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I like colored, but only when they're big and graphic. I am digging the ones I keep seeing everywhere this year. They have red, green and a purpley shade.
Second to that, I like all white and green and red only are good by me too.

posted by glurf on December 12th 2008 at 2:11pm
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My family grew up doing multi-colored, but as we bought new lights we migrated to all-white. I agree, now since EVERYONE does it, all-white is boring.

I've started migrating back to multi-colored now and I love it!

posted by Zhahira on December 12th 2008 at 2:13pm
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My mother became enamored with the all-white lights at some point toward the end of my childhood, so when I do lights, I revert to the color lights. She also doesn't like the blinking lights, so I love the blinking lights. It's not that her way is bad, but I think it looks a little boring and strict, and I'm not that nostalgic for it. It's a nostalgic look from some fictional Christmas card of some country farmhouse she's trying to replicate, as opposed to the fun and magical Christmases of my childhood in the 70s, the latter being my preference, given the choice.

posted by K T G on December 12th 2008 at 2:35pm
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A home in our neighborhood puts up a tree in their glassed-in porch with all red lights on it. We call it the "Satan" house.

posted by nazrd on December 12th 2008 at 2:54pm
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I like all-white lights, but this year I bought a string of red lights for my small tree. I should have realized they would look more pink than red. bleh.

posted by jamiealyse on December 12th 2008 at 3:00pm
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Multicolored lights on the tree, because the ornaments have been in the family forever. it's an old fashioned tree.

Red, green, and white led lights on the front porch, with the covers that mimic the old big bulbs. Nostaligia and green in one fell swoop.

posted by Aldyth on December 12th 2008 at 3:17pm
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I've always preferred all one color lights but not white, blue or purple. I grew up with multicolored, no 'theme' trees and always dreamed of having a tree like the ones they set up at Macys.

posted by CaliPunkRockGirl on December 12th 2008 at 4:09pm
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We had those large (and dangerous) multi-color bulbs back when I was growing up, and I adored them. Loved them even more when the paint chipped off a little. Gave it a certain wasi-sabi vibe, I guess.

Years later I purchased a whole bunch of similar lights, and was rather disappointed. They just weren't as fantastic as I remembered, and seemed overly bulky and kind of drab. So I'm part of the clear / white crowd now. And lots of them (wrap the tree twice for more visual volume).

posted by tdominey on December 12th 2008 at 4:10pm
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I meant I like all blue or all purple, not all white.

posted by CaliPunkRockGirl on December 12th 2008 at 4:10pm
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Multicolor minis, no blinking, indoor tree (100 lights per foot of height, minimum) and when I bother, on the garland around the front porch.

I have bad eyes (although Lasik helped some) -- looking at colored mini lights at night without glasses is like fireworks or something -- they take on a whole new dimension! (people with good eyes might replicate the effect by looking through the corrective lenses of someone with bad eyes -- not sure if the distortion will look the same, though.)

posted by SherryBinNH on December 12th 2008 at 4:20pm
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White on the tree (so they don't clash with the ornaments) and colored for the house.

posted by chartreuse on December 12th 2008 at 4:23pm
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It really, really depends. I live in New England, and some of the old white houses with black shutters in the small towns just look perfect with all white lights and tons of greenery. But for the average house, the white lights just look dull, too restrained to be festive. They remind me of middle-brow restaurants that string white lights in potted palms - aiming for elegance and missing by a mile. I like multis, and I like all of one color - my mom always used blue for the window candles, and I still like blue lights. My favorite is a mix of sizes of lights - tiny white ones with bigger red ones, or something like that, or little multis with big multis. This year I had to replace a bunch that died, so I have mid-sized LED multis for the tree in the living room, and blue lights in the dining room.

posted by pyewacket on December 12th 2008 at 4:37pm
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When I was a boy, we had several strands of multi-colored blinky lights - so part of the tree would be dark while other parts would light up, but the strands were never in synch so that all of a sudden the entire tree would go dark, then the entire tree would light up in a great flash.

I also like the way the colored lights make the ornaments appear different colors depending on the light that was next to them...

...so screw good taste: I like my multicolored blinkers.
:-)

posted by bepsf on December 12th 2008 at 4:49pm
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I like the big bulbs on houses, but don't like them on trees.

My personal preference for trees are the small white lights, but colored ones can be nice too, especially when paired with coordinating ornaments.

posted by Erika in Seattle on December 12th 2008 at 7:29pm
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Although I have red chili pepper lights in my apartment window.

posted by Erika in Seattle on December 12th 2008 at 7:31pm
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blue LED this year!!

posted by notyou on December 12th 2008 at 8:12pm
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I use only LED lights as I care about our earth.
But I use the multi-cloured lights, but I can make my tree only one colour! Here's how using three power bars and lots of extension cords (fire safe):
One powerbar for white coloured lights, another for blue (or whatever colour you desire), and yet another power bar for multi-coloured light strands.
That way I can choose what I want my tree to look like just by a switch of a powerbar! It can be pure white, just blue, white and blue, multi-coloured, or all colours by turning on all the powerbars!
It's my brilliant Christmas tree secret I got from my mom (who happened upon it by pure accident!). It's a sure way to fool your neighbours! And kids love it!
("What? She has a white-light tree!? Last night it was all different colours!! How'd she do that?!)
Tonight, my Christmas tree is gleaming all blue lights and looks absolutely stunning against my sliding glass door and the snow-falling cityscape.
Merry Christmas!

posted by mulove on December 12th 2008 at 8:19pm
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Is it possible to purchase lights that are NOT made with leadin the plastic? I have searched every store in this town, not a single lead-less strand.

posted by mischief7 on December 13th 2008 at 1:18am
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I think multi-colored is better. It's more interesting and fun to create some great decorations like these biggest christmas lights outdoor decorations. Every year I think I won't decorate the house but when I see something beautiful like decorations from the link, I decorate it.

posted by Mikkee on December 13th 2008 at 3:18pm
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big huge classic c-9 lights! If I had a "theme" tree I might go white but my tree is a mish-mash of 29 years of ornament collecting.

posted by mizrobot on December 13th 2008 at 8:06pm
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OH YES YES YES!!!
I can not contain my excitement!!!!
I am in love with the idea of having a different colored tree **every night**!!
"Joshismylove"'s method of using different extension cords for each colored strand is absolutely BRILLIANT!
I had to redo my tree to give er a go (simple makeover as I use only glass icicle ornaments)
Here's my formula:
all my clear fairy lights are attached to extension cord #1, red bulbs to extension cord #2, blinking lights to cord #3 (for the kids), and multi-colored plugged into cord #4.
All are plugged into one super powerbar! I marked each extension cord, so I can I plug in whatever combination I want!!
THANK YOU!!! <:-> BTW -- my Xmas tree is **clear & red lights** at present and it's magical, especially with my glass icicle ornaments!!!

posted by mulove on December 14th 2008 at 10:41pm
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Im her co-worker by the way! And she's flattered I borrowed her four-in-one Christmas light "secret" and wrote about it. lol!!!
-- Sherry <:->

posted by mulove on December 14th 2008 at 10:45pm
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All WHITE!! No to flashing and multi-colored. Don't mind all blue, just as long as its all one color. Multi is extremely tacky in my opinion..

posted by Matthew K. on December 18th 2008 at 12:39pm
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