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Holiday decorations bring feelings of warmth and cheer even in the darkest and coldest days of the year. Testing, setting up, and connecting Christmas lights can be anything but a joyful experience, though.
The KooPower Waterproof Battery Fairy Lights are our top choice because they are controlled by a remote and powered by batteries, so there is no proximity to an outlet or hands-on access required.
I'm a man who likes his holiday decorations. I spend hours and hours every November climbing up and down ladders and scrambling around on the roof stringing up dozens of feet of Christmas lights on every peak and roofline of the house. Then I spend about 15 minutes taking them all down again in January, thanks to a secret holiday light hanging technique I came up with a few years back. But that, friends, is a secret. Kind of. I'll probably explain it if you ask. (Cough cough use file clamps on the shingles cough!)
With all those hours spent decorating the home come a fair share of frustrations, though, from the nightly task of plugging the strands in because you can't find a timer to the cord that's too short to reach the outlet and the yearly search for the one burned out bulb, to the pleasure of your ladder falling away from the roof, leaving you deciding between risking a jump or calling your wife to ask her to come help you out of a less than impressive situation.
To that end, this year I've worked to assemble a buying guide filled primarily with holiday lights that not only look great, but that also make your life easier.
Included with a couple of classic plug-in options, this guide features Christmas lights that get their power from batteries and that get power from the sun. We have lights controlled via a handheld remote and those that are beamed out of a projector. Like it or not, the holiday season comes with its fair share of stress, so let's not make hanging the holiday lights one more source of it.
Sure, those old strands of tiny incandescent bulbs you have tangled up in boxes on the garage shelves are probably fine ... but these lights are definitely better. Upgrade your Christmas light game this season with these shining examples of great holiday lights.
Here are the best Christmas lights you can buy:
- Best Christmas lights overall: KooPower Waterproof Battery Fairy Lights
- Best Christmas lights: Good Tidings Light Ceramic Multi-Colored Holiday Lights
- Best light projector: TOFU Laser Projector Light
- Best solar Christmas lights: VMANOO Solar Powered String Lights
- Best mini Christmas lights: Brizled LED Mini String Christmas Lights
- Best permanent Christmas lights: Everlights Starter Kit
Updated on 11/07/2018 by Steven John: Replaced a few picks and added a permanent lighting solution. Updated prices and formatting.
Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.
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