Christmas lights, decorations and trees

[Jean Lemieux]

Here's the official thread for this season's Christmas decorations. Post pictures of your outdoor lights, indoor lights, decoration and your tree(s) you put this year.

Here's ours:
I did all that already two week ago.


All classic 1990s C9 7watts lights, one set are C7 5 watts except for the crown that have mini incandescent outdoor clear lights. Some are solid colors other are clear colors. I prefer the solid cause its more 1980s. ;D NO DEL's

[Cole S.]

I don't have much stuff up this year. Usually I do the WHOLE ceiling in the finished part of the basement in tons of lights, but no one will see them this year so I'm not going to even bother.

DEL? I think that's LED, and I don't have any either, I think they're hideous and they're too bright to look at, but they don't give off ANY light at all. I mean what's up with that? They could blind you if looked at directly, but you couldn't see your hand in front of your face if you were in a room full of them. ;D

/rant mode off.

[Andrew G.]

This..

[Rick M.]

You guys have seen my Christmas trees ;D:

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As for my outside lights, I used the old-fashoned C9 multi-color lights on a big bush, and net lights (mini lights) on the smaller bushes. No LEDs this year.

[JW]

Don't have pictures as of yet; if I do post any they won't be of the entire house as I don't want certain people (not related to the fan forums) to figure out where I live...

Trees have regular "midget" lights wrapped all the way up the trunks. Branches either have clear midgets or clear C7/C9's.

Blue C9's around the garage. Red bell lights (C7) on the front porch and some clear "chasing" lights on the front porch column. I may add some C9's to the sidewalk tomorrow.

In each window I have "Candoliers", those sets of plastic candles you used to see everywhere. They were invented in the 1920's and sold for decades. I have 3-light (still sold now in some places, I think), 5-light (seems to be the most common - sold up to and through the mid 90's), and 8-light (very hard to find). They all take C7 bulbs.

On my tree inside the house I have a couple of sets of computerized lights which fade back and forth from multicolor to clear. Wally world sold them for a year or two.

I'm not using any LED's this year, and I refuse to use icicle or net lights in any form or fashion. I think icicles are way overdone (especially in Texas where it very seldom gets icy), and net lights make the trees or bushes look way too pre-fab.

I have some of the ones with the little plastic reflectors on them (I know Jeremy has a bunch of these), but I haven't found any place to put them this year. Those reflectors don't push into the current size midget socket properly and thus the wires don't make contact all of the time. I also have some with two different colors on each bulb, but when you look at them from a distance they just look white.

[Chris H.]

I have LED icicle lights, but can't put em' up this year...can't really afford it. Though the last oh, 5 years we've set the record for the most lights on our house during Christmas.

This year we're doing two front windows (pics later, and maybe my neighbors) and that's it.

Here's inside, and the lights that are going into the windows:

Here's my living room tree (the lights are on, but the flash is too bright)


Here's my tree and fireplace mantle


Here's my tree


The star


The mantle up close


The lights that'll be in the windows


This is everything in one shot


Everyone has probably seen these, but here's my ceiling fan:

[Rick M.]

Nice, Chris! Your tree looks nice!

[Chris H.]

Thank you.

[Cole S.]

I'll maybe have to take pics of my tree. It's artificial, one of those white ones (Not very traditional, but I always used to want a white Christmas tree) and we went artificial because when we get a real one it's always lopsided no matter what and it tips over constantly.

[Chris H.]

LOL..lopsided trees

I have extreme allergies to certain pines. So we've had two different arties. One was 4 ft, and we sold it when we bought a 6.5 footer. I want a small silver one..or a green one that has white needles facing upwards.

[Jean Lemieux]

Here's our tree. We always put it pretty late cause its a natural one. Its about 7ft. Most of the decorations are from the 1990s but we also have a few from the 1970s, 1980s and 2000s. Notice the mix of minis lights with opaque C7 5watts bulbs.

I also have this little fake one in my bedroom. This is last year's picture but it looks pretty much the same this year.

[Rick M.]

Nice trees, Jean! Your natural tree looks great this year! ;D

[JW]

Here are my Candoliers. Seems like less and less people use them each year. When I was a kid, they were EVERYWHERE.

I've used clear bulbs in them for years; some people prefer orange or red (or those expensive "flame bulbs" that are either painted red and yellow or flicker), but those don't go with my display... and I won't use an "unnatural" color such as green or blue in them.

3-light candolier; you can still get these in a SELECT few places.


5-light candolier; seemed to be the most common variant in the 80's, except for maybe the singles. Very hard to find in stores now. This is what I call the "pointed" version, also the most common:


The MUCH less common "rounded" version; note how the four outer candles are taller than the other 5-light set. My grandparents had one of these when I was a child and I always wanted to "inherit" it, but it broke a few years ago. I finally found one on Ebay.


The 8-light version - pretty rare and discontinued long ago. These were originally made in the 20's-30's with C6 bulbs before they changed to C7 in the later years. Mine use C7's.


I also have these red bells on my porch. They're a set of 15 I picked up several years ago. They have an "energy saving" feature that does not burn the bulbs at full temperature. I wish I had some of the "twinkling" C7 bulbs in either red or white to put in them (as were used in the old window sets with 3 big bells), but apparently those aren't made anymore either.

[Rick M.]

Here are my window candelabras:

I have two of the 5-socket ones. They are probably from the mid '80s. My grandmother moved into a smaller house, and she knew I always liked these, so she gave me both of them. They now go in the front two windows of my house. Both have red/orange flames and frosted flames. I don't know why they have those bulbs, but that's how they've always been since my grandmother used to put them up. :

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Next, I have this 3-socket one in my side window; it has 3 red bulbs currently. This was my first candelabra that was probably purchased around 2000 or 2001 ;D:

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Lastly, I have this single candle with an orange bulb that is original to it. It is currently in the far side window. I got this on sale a few years ago :

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Enjoy!

[Chris H.]

I'm baaaaaack.

With new pictures of course.

My lampost


Front window #1 (bad lighting)


Front window #2 (improved the lighting sensitivity of the camera)


Front window #1 (improved the lighting sensitivity of the camera)


My neighbor's down the block. Not very many are putting up lights this year


My neighbors across the street (we're good friends)


Enjoy! I think I've already posted pics of my interior lights (tree and stuff)