Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

LED Christmas lights

Last night our neighbor put up their outdoor Christmas lights. I felt like they had broken some unwritten rule. Around these parts you just don't put them up until after Thanksgiving. Even then, I think that's too early, but I've gotten used to it.

When do you think it's "okay" to start decorating for Christmas?

And, speaking of lights, if you do decorate for the holidays, are you still using ye olde incandescent bulbs or have you switched out to LED holiday lights yet?

I've noticed that there are a lot more LED options now. We switched over a few years ago, back when the selection was grim. I'm getting a few more strands of LED lights since we are doing things a little bit different for our lighting display this year, which I'm very excited about.

Even then, for these specialty lights, I could only find one place online that sells an LED version of them and they are twice as expensive. I can justify the expense because I know we'll save on electricity in the long run and over the years, but still it's hard to swallow going in.

17 comments:

Lisa said...

You would hate me lol. We have had our lights up since last weekend and our tree since right after Halloween. I would wait until right after Thanksgiving but my husband loves Christmas so much he can't stand to wait so I say if it makes you happy screw everyone else lol.

BTW all of our lights our LED, some are even solar. :)

Anonymous said...

Mine are "winter lights" so I put them up when I think its dark enough (this morning!) and leave them up thru February. Two strands of LEDs - helps here where there are not street lights.

Adrienne said...

I would say the week of Thanksgiving is okay to start decorating.

I'm not Christian, and I don't usually decorate for the holidays or put up any lights b/c I am just lazy... I'm only going to have to take them down again. I do sometimes put up one string of lights and just leave them up for several months, b/c they're pretty.

Lisa Nelsen-Woods said...

A few of my neighbors put up their lights because is was unseasonably warm but don't have them lit yet.

I try to wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate. I have electric candles in the windows that are incandescent but they are on sensors. I have one string of LEDs, the rest are incandescent. When I was doing the 20% Energy Challenge our rule was to use what we had, and we were able to reduce our electric use with our incandescent lights by putting them on a sensor timer. The lights came on at dusk and shut off 4 hours later at bedtime. That's an option if you can't replace your current lights.

Robj98168 said...

I try and put mine up during thanks giving vacation. Just because they are up does not mean I gotta turn them on. I use LED Xmas lights on a timer that turns on when it gets dark, then stays on for the allotted amount of time (usually I have it set to go of at 11:00PM or just after I get home from work)
PS The Verification word I got is Molexed... Something that should hit home with you (great amounts of moles in holes=molexed)

Olivia said...

DH put them up last night because it was reasonably warm and snow is in the forecast. Canadian Thanksgiving was in October so there's no problem that way but we probably won't actually turn the lights on til next week.

We use all LED but if they get covered in snow it can be a problem since they remain cool so the snow doesn't melt and you can't see them!

Katy @ The Non-Consumer Advocate said...

I hang round silver and blue holiday ornaments from the front of the house. It looks special for the season, but without electricity.

Katy

Bucky said...

I think that the appropriate time to decorate for Christmas is never.

Bah Humbug.

If the Little Baby Jesus had wanted up to put up lights (LED or otherwise) for his birthday, then he should have mentioned it in his best selling book, The Bible.

Bah Humbug.

LadyCiani said...

I think it depends on if it snows or not where you are.

In southern CA it is still 80 degrees. I don't think you should hang your lights until after thanksgiving here!

But where my in-laws are in Ohio I think as soon as the weather starts changing it is ok since you'll have to fight ice and snow if you wait to long, and that's just dangerous. Just don't turn them on yet.

We are new home owners and don't have much in the way of lights. Last year we closed on our house right after Thanksgiving, so there was no chance to decorate before that.

Now, my dad is huge into conservation (he has solar panels even!) and he went all LED last year and it's just beautiful. He told everyone he ran into how much he saved on electric.

Last year he bought us two strands of LEDs and secretly hung them on our new house before we moved in, so we're starting with those. This year we're faced with buying more of our own (and the expense).

I think we will go LED for the majority of the lights, but I'm not finding a particular style of garland-swag-with-LED-lights, so we'll probably go with regular mini lights for that one item. Plus a timer to shut it all off.

Rachael said...

I'm totally with Katy.

Deanna said...

We are going to be replacing all the lights on our tree with LED lights this year. I figure it's going to cost us about $100 which has me cringing but we had a lot of bulbs going out in our old strands last year and need new ones. I guess we'll bite the bullet. We usually don't put up the tree or decorate until mid-December because we leave it all up until our son's birthday on January 10th. Besides, I like my holidays one at a time. However, we've been out of town most of the past three weeks and it seems a bit pointless to decorate for fall this late. I'll start decorating right after Thanksgiving this year.

knutty knitter said...

Its summer here so Christmas lights are a waste of time - too light in the evenings. I have one strand of led lights on a solar panel which are along the front and haven't been taken down in years and thats it. We turn them on when we feel like it and they cost nothing as they were a gift and don't use electricity.

My Christmas trees are up already because of the shop but we don't have space for a personal tree. Grandma next door has that. Its an almost 40 year old artificial tree with all our handmade ornaments from every era inbetween.

viv in nz

Kimberly said...

Absolutely, positively not until after Thanksgiving. I personally prefer to wait until the end of the first week in December!

http://rubberchickenmadness.blogspot.com/2010/11/dear-santa-all-i-want-for-christmas-is.html

Tree Huggin Momma said...

I will use my old lights until they no longer work. Yes they use more electricity, but I don't leave them on for hours on end. I don't do an outdoor display, if I did I would have to find solar lights for that and with our grey winter skies I am not sure that is the best option.
When my old lights finally bite the dust, then and only then will they join the landfill (of course if I can "recycle" them when I purchase new ones I will).
I wonder how people justify buying new when the old works as "GREEN"?

Lizzie Bordello said...

This year (my first in my own house) I finally realized why people here in MN put their lights up so early and leave them so late here - it's' just too darn cold to even think about getting up there with a ladder and staple gun in mid December. We put up some lights on our garage a couple of weeks ago, when it was a surprise warm day and we could stand to be outside - but I won't be turning them on 'til after Thanksgiving.

Unknown said...

We've put-up solar Christmas lights and generally do that on Remembrance Day.

We live in a really old neighbourhood with no street lights and we seem to need them during these dark days.

Dmarie said...

We justified buying a new, little, pre-strung artificial Christmas tree by giving our still-in-great-shape-though-10+-years-old artificial tree to our daughter. Newly in a home of her own, she was thrilled to decorate that tree that we thought was too much trouble! (Same as previous purchase, tree bought after Christmas when the price was slashed.)