Christmas Outlet

Walk into any Lowes, Home Depot, Target, Kmart or Walmart in mid October and there they are right up front – staring you right in the face – those shiny new, colorful LED Christmas lights. You’re already shopping for new lights for the season. You know they are there. You ignore them, but they won’t go away. You want to keep your decorations traditional, true to the Christmas decorating spirit you grew up with as a child. But, there they sit. Should you or shouldn’t you? Why does decorating have to be so difficult? 

LED lights are not new. They’ve been around for years and you probably didn’t know what they were or didn’t notice them. LED stands for “light emitting diode” and are the very same lights that you’ve been looking at in your digital alarm clock, calculator, DVD player and many other types of electronic equipment. They were invented in the 1920’s but weren’t used in electronics until 1962. In years past, marketers have tried to sell LED Christmas tree lights to consumers, but the LED craze just didn’t catch on because LED’s weren’t very bright. That is, until now. 

Like many things, LED’s have greatly been improved and outdoor LED Christmas lights and tree lights are no exception. Slowly but surely, LED’s are becoming more and more popular. Why? Several reasons. First, people are more environmentally conscious and LED’s certainly meet eco-friendly standards. LED Christmas lights use 90% less power than traditional incandescent lights. The standard incandescent Christmas light lasts for 3,000 hours of usage. LED’s last for up to 150,000 hours. This means you’ll pay a bit more for the LED’s, but you’ll recoup the extra expense because they last so much longer. LED’s are also gaining popularity due to their safety factor. Because LED’s use so much less energy, they are far cooler than incandescent light bulbs. Using LED Christmas tree lights greatly reduces the risk of fire. And because LED’s have plastic bulbs, they are just as pretty as glass bulbs but are much more durable and will last a long time. 

So now we know that these LED’s are eco-friendly and they last longer. But the questions still remains, “Will they ruin Christmas?” Chances are, they won’t. LED Christmas lights are much brighter now than before. In tests conducted by Consumer Reports, they discovered that large LED bulbs were dimmer than incandescent, but the mini-LED’s were brighter. Still not sold? The manufacturers of LED’s are working hard to impress the consumer and you can now buy LED Christmas lights in an impressive array of pretty bulbs. Although you will know that they’re LED Christmas lights, no one else will. They will all just be impressed with your holiday decorating skills!