I have a timely question for you! Actually it is a series of questions. Here we go.
Do you prefer colored lights or white lights? (This is whether or not you yourself put any up.)
And because it seems that mixed marriages must lead to compromises: which kind do you in fact have, if any? If desired, include details such as large or small lights, LED or whatever the non-LED kind is called, flashing or twinkling or running or steady.
And which kind did you grow up with, if any?
And finally, WHY do you prefer what you prefer?—and I hope we can answer primarily by saying what we DO like about our preferred lights, rather than by saying what we DON’T like about our NON-preferred lights, to keep this from being an unfestive rumble. (But it may be NECESSARY to express a preference in terms of a non-preference, in which case perhaps it can be said with Holiday Lovingkindness rather than with Scoffing Scorn.)
I have long preferred colored lights (the steady non-LED kind), and I think it is partly because that’s what I grew up with, and partly because I generally like things that are rainbow/sparkly.
BUT, recently my parents got a pre-lit tree with WHITE lights, and now I am torn. When I went tree-shopping, I preferred the white-light trees to the colored-light trees, because I felt like they looked so natural and starry and lovely. And when we go on our annual Christmas Light Drive, I find the VARIETY is my favorite part: first a house with all white lights everywhere; then a house with those 1970s-looking big-bulbed lights, the ones the size of nightlights (did you know you can use those bulbs as nightlight bulbs? green and blue and yellow are especially pretty); then a house with running lights; then a house with some of those big light structures. But that makes it kind of hard to decide what to have at my own house.
I like them ALL. We have white lights on the tree and big colored bulbs outside. They are all pretty.
I grew up with colored lighted in the family room. Sometimes they were the flashy kind sometimes not. When we moved into a house with a formal living room my mother put up a tree with white lights. I like both equally. To me colored and it moving lights seem more fun and kids tend to like them more. White lights seem more formal and classic feel. So I think it depends on what vibe you want your house to feel. I always had white until I had kids and now we always do colored because I lose out on the vote. Sorry for the essay!
I grew up with colored lights as well, sometimes we had twinkly lights, sometimes we had steady lights.
When I moved into my first apartment, I had a pre-lit tree with only white lights, which I decided that I really, really liked. I think the white lights make the colors on the ornaments seem more intense. Very pretty.
We go back and forth at our house now, some years we have white lights, some years we have colored lights. I always think the lights are pretty, whether they are colored or white.
I’m afraid I like all of ’em. And I didn’t grow up with lights outside because we couldn’t afford the electricity bills. Inside, though, it was white lights until a few years ago, and now it’s colored.
Now we can afford to put them up outside, but we still don’t because nobody would see it. We live on a dirt road with one neighbor and nobody comes down here, so we don’t bother. Yeah, I wind red velvet outdoor ribbon around the front porch posts and fake garlands. And we put out a wreath and a mat, but most of the decorating is on the inside. I mean, that’s where the tree, 14 stockings (we do them for everybody, My grandmother, my mom, the original six, two spouses, and all four kids) and four crechés are.
Swistle, did you know that a giraffe came with the wise men? Evie, my three-year-old niece, swears that it’s so! (And that’s how the Little People creché is set up!)
I grew up with colored lights on the tree and white lights outside. I still prefer white lights outside, but on my tree I am torn.
Right now we have white LED lights on the tree because that was what was on sale. I would prefer the non LED white lights because I think it looks more natural. We don’t have the teeny tiny lights but they are not huge either, and I like that. I also prefer solid lights to moving lights but that is mostly because the moving lights trigger my motion sickness.
We do have bubble lights on our tree now (colored lights with tubes of water out of the top that bubble when they are turned on)and this makes me ecstatic. Bubble lights were a fixture on my house growing up. Having these on my tree makes me nostalgic and so very happy. And the husband and kid think they are super cool too.
Any way you go though, lights are pretty and that is what matters.
I grew up with colored lights on the tree and no outside lights (we had no neighbors). When I got married hubby & I had words about colors vs. white and he won. We have always had small LED white lights on our tree and outside, and now I prefer the clean, uniform look of it. But when touring neighborhoods with the kids they like the colors best. :)
I have small white lights, no LED yet. Maybe never, because I like the light of real bulbs better. I can’t have twinkling stuff, drives me bonkers.
Growing up, we had the same kind of lights I have now, only when I was a lot younger they were electrical ones that looked like candles. My parents and now I probably prefer white because it looks like little starts and is neutral with the other decoration on the tree that can be quite colourful and varied.
We never had outside lights, and it’s not customary to have them around here the way you do in the USA. Sometimes people put lights in their trees outside, or have some lights in the windows (those are often colourful). I think if I ever did an outside tree, using colours would be fun (and it wouldn’t distract from other decoration, because at night that wouldn’t be visible). But I’ll never have anything that blinks.
I grew up with colored lights, but I like white lights best. I think they look classy and elegant against dark green and red. My fiance doesn’t care, but if he strongly preferred colored lights I’d be okay with them too.
I prefer the small, coloured, non-blinking, non-LED (but still energy efficient) lights on the tree inside. I don’t find LED lights are bright enough to satisfy me for inside lights. I do like them outside, although like you, I appreciate having a house with the old-style bulb ones every now and again for variety.
I grew up in BC (Canada) and we always had small coloured lights on the tree and coloured lights outside. Leo’s family had large coloured lights on their tree and coloured lights outside. Our house uses the small ones because I’m the one who decorates the tree and Leo doesn’t seem to give a hoot. If he doesn’t care, then we’re doing it MY WAY. :)
I spent a few years in Denmark for work and in Denmark, it is not possible to buy coloured lights. It’s all white lights, indoor & out. It still made for a twinkly, lovely Christmas atmosphere, although I was skeptical before my first Christmas there.
(Interestingly, I have noticed on blogs and on Twitter that lots of people have more than one tree. Or they have a kids’ tree and a “regular”? tree. I have never met anyone here who has more than one tree in their house. How many people have more than one tree? )
I prefer white lights and my husband and sons prefer the colored ones. We take turns having the lights we want, and this year was my turn. I grew up with colored AND white lights. Big, colored bulbs outside and white bulbs and colored ones on the tree. My mom was always very pro-tons of stuff on the tree, so it was PACKED OUT with lights, ornaments, etc. It is also worth noting that we used the SAME lights from the time I can remember (being VERY SMALL) until I left home (at age 24). Sometimes some blinked, sometimes they didn’t. I am not sure if they were ever supposed to blink at all.
I grew up with small, steady, non-LED lights on the tree and that is still my preference and what I put on my own tree. I think what I like is what you said — they have a starry quality that I find so pretty. Sort of dreamy and candlelight-esque. I just love the way it looks. If I had a house and did outdoor lights, they would be the same kind.
I have a white light prelit tree with bigger colored lights added this year, and just window candles for outside. But I grew up with bubble lights which I’d love to get when my kids are old enough to not grab/bite/break glass tubes of liquid.
I prefer white lights. I don’t have any experience with LED Christmas lights, so I can’t say anything about those. I, like others and you have noted, like white because it is so classic and starry. I imagine them to be candles like back in the day. For outside decoration, I tend to like white, but colored lights have their place too!
I’m surprised so many people have LED versus non-LED preferences. I was unaware that there was a different in quality. I thought the LED would still light if one light burned out and were more energy efficient.
I grew up with big 70s bulbed colored lights with bubblers on them. For a while as an adult I preferred white lights and thought they were classy and elegant. I still like them quite a lot, but I prefer the colored ones now. They seem fun and enthusiastic to me. We don’t have blinking, but I would be fine with those. We have big colored bulbs on our tree and little colored ones on outside.
My 7yo is hilariously disdainful of white lights and how “boring” they look. I like my MIL’s tree with white lights and red/white/gold/silver ornaments, but I love our tree with big colored bulbs and a mess of homemade ones.
Colored lights on the tree, since the Christmas tree is to be a bright and gaudy addition to the home – not some generic matchy-matchy tree from a fancy-pants department store.
But really? I like all lights…just not on my house!
Like you, I love all things rainbow and sparkly. I grew up with colored lights, the big huge nightlight bulbs outside and colored lights (I don’t remember what size?) on our tree.
We have small colored lights on our tree and we’ve bought prelit garlands with small colored lights to wrap around our front patio railings.
My personal favorite outdoor lights is a combo of white icicle lights topped with small colored lights. *swoon* Unfortunately, our roofline is to perilously tall for putting those up safely.
We (my husband and I) generally prefer colored lights. We have LED’s inside and out with larger ones outside and smaller ones on the tree. Next year we will have two trees, one family tree and one tree for all my Snoopy ornaments. :)
I grew up with big-bulbed colored lights, and that’s what we use on our tree now. Out tree is a huge mishmash of tacky and handmade and strange ornaments, and the big colored lights seem to fit that spirit. Pretty, perfect white lights would probably shun our ragtag bunch of misfit ornaments.
This year we did outside lights for the first time, and we got two strands of solar-powered LED to go around some garland on our banister (no outdoor outlet to use) – and while I like them very much, I was surprised at how different they look from ordinary lights- they’re a much bluer white, and seem a little dimmer.
I grew up with colored because my brother and I fought for them, though my mother preferred white (my dad had no opinion). Now, though, I prefer white. I feel like they have a sort of vintage feel to them that the colored ones don’t — I like the colored ones for a more modern, fun look, but for me personally I prefer to do a vintage style with lots of white lights and green garland and red ribbons. Luckily, my husband is on board with this as well.
I prefer the white lights. The traditional ones NOT the LEDs. I think the LEDs look to blue for me. I like the old school white ones that have a more candlelight glow. Like tiny candles all over my tree. I like them all steady and I like a LOT of lights. Growing up we had colored ones until my parents split then we always had white ones. My mom liked flashers, but not me. I think my husband may very slightly more prefer colored but it isn’t really an issue and I get my way.
For outdoor light I don not approve of mixed white LED and traditional. It just looks…..wrong. Outdoor colored lights are awesome. Blow up toys…not so much.
I prefer the non led non blinky colored ones because they are more playful and festive to me, than the white lights. I like playful and fun… And thanks for another year of posts swistle. Merry Christmas to you and your family!
I like all lights (not a big LED fan)…for our house, I like colored on the tree and white outside :)
I vote for small, white, non-LED lights for the indoor tree. For outdoors, I think my favorite look depends upon the type of house and landscaping you have. If you have an interesting roofline, I love the look of the big, ’70s-style bulbs strung straight along the eaves. Other than that, I’m down with any kind of lights, as long as the overall look is cohesive. I’m not a fan of small-white-steady on one bush, and big-colored-blinking on another, with 50 blow-up Santas and plastic wise men in between.
I like the large, old-fashioned, non-LED multi-colored lights for outside decorating. I grew up with them and I just like them. I think the “old-fashionedness” is the main draw for me. But this year finances won out and we got some of the LED version. They’re just pathetic, I hate them. They’re not nearly bright enough.
On trees, I don’t really care, but I do kind of feel like all white lights are less festive, more showroom-y, if that makes any sense.
And I don’t mind the small lights, but I really don’t like any kind of blinking. Steady all the way.
I have a very, very very strong preference for white lights on a tree, to the extent that I actually really do not LIKE colored lights on a tree, at all. And I hate blinking lights. But my general feeling is that outdoor lights and decorations should be as tacky as possible.
I like white lights on the tree, the non-LED kind. Probably because that’s what I grew up with. We had some colored lights on the “kids” tree which was fun for all the little ornaments we had collected from school, but my mom’s coordinated fancy tree was only white lights.
As for houses, right now I like really bright LED lights in any size. I like either all white lights or strands of rainbow/multi-colored lights but I don’t care for strings of only one color (especially green and red).
I grew up with the big multicolored lights, and I have multicolored lights on my tree now. I never cared for the blinking ones, because all the ones I saw had this part of the tree blinking now, that part next, and so on. Made my brain itch. Some years ago I found a really long strand of 4 color chaser lights. It’s long enough to go around the tree top to bottom twice, and the speed can be adjusted from super fast which makes them continuously lit, to very slow, so all the red are on, fade and blue comes up, fade and green comes up, etc, with the whole tree doing it all at the same time. That, I like.
Do you prefer colored lights or white lights? And because it seems that mixed marriages must lead to compromises: which kind do you in fact have, if any?
I prefer white steady lights, I think, although this year we have red and blue. I think the white lights are very clean looking and our tree this year is anything but, as our kids are daily ripping it apart.
And which kind did you grow up with, if any?
I am pretty old, and I grew up with the GIANT colored lights. The bulbs were huge!
And finally, WHY do you prefer what you prefer?
I do think the white is neater and cleaner looking and, to use a word that my father hates and thinks should only be used ironically, classy. I have just white lights and blue lights sort of strung in my front-facing windows and I wouldn’t use the blue again, because it’s damned hard to see blue lights, I’ve discovered. Maybe next year I’ll put the blue lights on my mantle or something. The colored lights are more festive, but also more childish, in my opinion. I think that tomorrow I’m going to go shopping for a fake, pre lit with white bulbs, tree.
I prefer small white lights, twinkling, if possible (but not flashing). We’ve partially made the switch to LED, but I didn’t find any that had a natural-feeling twinkle, so they’re just on. I love the icicle lights when hung on the right place outside.
Like you, I also grew up with the huge lights. They look so funny to me now!
As a compromise with my husband, we have colored lights (small LED) on the tree and white lights in the windows and for outside. I’ve grown to like the colored ones on the tree, so not a bad compromise at all.
I love a variety of outdoor lights when it comes to looking at them, too. I’m loving some of the new color combinations and single-color options (especially the reds and blues) out there.
Merry Christmas!
White lights on the tree, so not to detract from the ornaments. Colored lights everywhere else.
I grew up with a white tree & red lights, so I suppose I get a ‘solid light’ vibe from that. We also had the big multicolored bulbs indoors around widows & outside on the roof & trees
Grew up with mostly white lights inside and out, now have white lights inside, and we don’t usually do outdoor lights. I find white lights indoors to feel ‘quieter’, which I prefer.
I like variety, though, so I enjoy the colored lights on other people’s houses (esp. the multicolored strands of bigger bulbs). That said, I don’t like a mishmash of different light types in one ‘thing’ (a mixture in a yard can often work, but I dislike the different types on one tree thing).
For years I really only liked plain white lights, but these days I am not very picky. I do *generally* prefer to have only one color per strand of lights, but if it’s the big bulbs I like a multicolored strand just fine. I have a slight preference for white lights only on the tree, but that doesn’t even count because we do miniature tinsel trees with no lights on them at all.
I grew up with a mix of colored and white lights, all small, some blinking and/or fading in and out.
Last year(My first with my own tree) I bought all small white lights, one strand steady lit and one twinkling ( I wanted blinking, but could only find the twinkling which is faster and more frantic than the blinking). We left them up around the house through January and they they all died, so this year I got to buy more/different lights. I decided to go with small, colored, non blinking for on the tree and small, non blinking, blue lights for around the house (Those were the ones my husband wanted, and I agreed, but not for on the tree). I really prefer the multicolored lights and would love to acquire some that blink. They remind me of my childhood, when I would get up before it was light out, on Christmas morning, ans sit with my brother admiring the tree and the stacks of presents, waiting for our parents to get up. That was always my favorite part of Christmas, the anticipation and the look of the “magical” (for lack of a better word) look of the tiny blinking lights in the otherwise dark room.
My husband and I have this conversation every year, not because we disagree, but because we so enjoy talking about it. We both grew up with colored lights, the big bulbs for him, small for me. We both still love the colored bulbs. Sometimes we find ourselves admiring all one color, but mostly we lean toward multi-colored design. He still prefers the big bulbs, while I’m torn. I think the big bulbs have a nice sturdy feel to them, but the smaller ones seem brighter to me. The LED lights win me over completely for this reason. I love, LOVE how bright they look.
I did know you could use the big Christmas bulbs in night lights. Several years ago, my husband went wild at the after-Christmas sales and bought a ridiculous amount of clearance lights, including the replacement bulbs. The next summer, when the light in the hallway outside our bedroom went out, rather than buying a bulb meant for the night light, he delved into our stash of Christmas light bulbs. Now we have green lights in the hallways and blue lights in the bathrooms and kitchen. I won’t let him use red as it gets pretty creepy when you get up in the middle of the night half asleep and encounter everything bathed in a red glow.
I prefer colored lights (non-LED) for my own house and tree, but likely because that’s what I grew up with. I do like the way white lights look on both house and tree. I do have white-only lights around my back deck. I also agree with you that the variety is nice as you’re driving around. I don’t particularly care for the LED colored lights but that’s probably just because I haven’t gotten used to them yet.
I like colored lights that intermittently fade and glow. Can’t do this with LEDs, alas, I don’t have any that still do this. But this is what I grew up with, so this is what I like.
I say you just get both and switch up each year. Get some colored lights and some white lights. I thought I remembered you getting a standard tree, not one that is pre-lit.
White lights. Colored lights are a big no no in our family. I won’t say why because it isn’t a very ladylike thing to say. But generally I feel like white lights are just more elegant and tend to go with everything.
I do love blue lights as well, but they hurt my eyes if I look at them for very long.
My mother bought a very cool pre-lit tree several years ago that you can change from colored lights to white lights with a remote control – you can also select blinking or non-blinking.
Personally, we always have a live tree with red, green and white lights.
Grew up with big colored bulbs. The big ‘uns were the only kind they had back then, dagnabbit.
I like white lights, but as a compromise, we have colored lights indoors (just bought some LEDs, and actually, the intense colors of the new LEDs put our old tiny lights to shame) and white lights (warm white LEDs because the cool white LEDs look blue) outside. No twinkling/blinking, which sets me on edge.
I like the look of white lights on a tree and little artsy ornaments — wooden things or maybe metal that look as though they’re relevant to the owner: I have mini copper kitchen equipment and a model barchetta from a restaurant in Italy where we ate on our honeymoon. Also tons of random crap.
I like a tree with both colored and white lights because I think the white lights make the colored lights sparkle more—otherwise they seem too dark.
Due to children and excessive drinking as a result of children, I don’t remember what kind of lights were used when I was a wee one.
If my husband will do the lights, he can do whatever the heck he wants and I won’t complain. (He prefers white.)
I like for whatever the choice is to be a complete picture for the house/tree. I don’t want to see half/half or one side of the house white twinkles and the end spot where you ran out to be a string of blue. I like it to be consistent, whatever it is. I don’t prefer blinking lights because they can get a little out of control and seizure inducing.
We grew up with a mixture, probably whatever was cheapest or most readily available that year. I remember some years with plain white, some years with plain colors, and some years with colors that had different “dances” you could choose.
For years and years and years I strongly preferred plain white lights on the inside tree. I just feel like it is neutral and pretty and makes the ornaments glow and sparkle and look candle-like and pretty with a glow. Yet, I preferred colored and twinkling lights outside. I think it looks more “festive” to drive by a brightly lit colorful house with fun effects.
But last year our white lights went out for our tree and out of desperation I found colored lights in the closet from way before we were in a relationship. To save a shopping trip and fretting over which lights to get I just used them. They were plain, unblinking colored lights and I ended up thinking they looked nice.
I love white lights all the way. Plain or chasing / twinkling are all fine. I think I like white because they remind me of stars. My sister prefers colored lights so the tree at home swapped every year. Now I have my own tree at my own house, so it’ll be white lights forever! Or until a kid of mine decides he or she loves colored lights best…I might consider a compromise then. Maybe.
I like colored lights for ME, but a variety for everybody else. My parents’ always use only white lights on both the tree and the house. When I was growing up we used to have one big strand of those old colored lights with the big, real lightbulbs that would break easily. I loved those.