The 12 Best Outdoor Christmas Lights, Tested and Reviewed

Best Overall

Yuletime Multicolor LED Christmas Lights

$33 At Amazon

Our Ratings

• Brightness
  5/5
• Ease of Use
  5/5
• Quality
  4/5
• Overall Value
  5/5

You can create a cheery and colorful outdoor display with the Yuletime Multicolor LED Christmas Lights, which come in just about every color imaginable, from traditional white and red to multicolored options. These colored lights feature 200 LED mini bulbs on a 66-foot wire, and we found the hues were vibrant and beautiful, especially at night. 

The fire-resistant lights feature a classic green wire, so they're great for stringing around your Christmas tree as well. The miniature size of the lights makes them suitable for decorating thin railings and branches, but they're still bright enough to cover trees and houses and still make an impact.

These colored Christmas lights are UL-certified and waterproof, and during our testing, they held up perfectly through several days of heavy rain and winds. They have a 'Stay Lit' design that prevents the whole strand from going dark if one bulb burns out, but we did note that the construction isn’t quite as durable as other options. Still, we love that you can connect up to 30 strands on one outlet—ideal for decorating your house or yard—and the lights come with six spare bulbs and two fuses, allowing you to repair any issues quickly and easily.

_{Bulb Type: LED | Bulb Shape: T5 mini | Length: 66 feet | Maximum Connected Strands: 30}

Best Budget

Home Accents Holiday LED Mini Warm White String Light

$16 At Amazon $22 At Home Depot

Our Ratings

• Brightness
  4/5
• Ease of Use
  5/5
• Quality
  3/5
• Length
  4/5
• Overall Value
  4/5

To get the most bang for your buck, the Home Accents Holiday LED Mini String Lights are a solid classic option for decorating your Christmas tree or around your home. These indoor-outdoor lights might not be the most durable, but they’re extremely affordable and give you the flexibility to connect up to 30 strands of lights together for large-scale decorating. Each strand is 29.5 feet long, and they feature 100 bulbs on classic green wire. 

We thought these lights were of average brightness, and liked the traditional appearance of the warm mini lights. They have a slight strobing effect, which is caused by a lack of rectifiers on the LEDs, but it’s not as noticeable when they’re actually hung up. These lights aren’t commercial-grade, which means there’s always the possibility that moisture will get into the bulbs, but they’re a great value if you're decorating on a budget.

_{Bulb Type: LED | Bulb Shape: T5 mini | Length: 29.5 feet | Maximum Connected Strands: 30}

Best Large Bulb

Wintergreen Lighting C9 LED Christmas String Lights

$62 At Amazon $24 At Walmart

Our Ratings

• Brightness
  5/5
• Ease of Use
  4/5
• Quality
  5/5
• Overall Value
  4/5

If you’re decorating a large outdoor object—such as your roofline or an oversized tree—you’ll want large bulbs to match the scale, and the Wintergreen Lighting C9 OptiCore Commercial LED Christmas Lights are unmatched in terms of aesthetics and quality. These lights feature large, faceted C9 bulbs made from durable polycarbonate, and we found them to be extremely bright and beautiful, lighting up our whole yard during testing. If you’d prefer them to be less bright, they can even be dimmed with a compatible switch.

These large lights come in several lengths, ranging from 25 to 100 feet. However, the bulbs and wires are packaged separately, forcing you to screw in each of the bulbs by hand. The lights are available in a variety of colors, and they even feature a clip on each socket, which makes them extremely easy to hang along your roofline.

_{Bulb Type: LED | Bulb Shape: C9 | Length: 25, 50, 100 feet | Maximum Connected Strands: 1,000 feet}

Best Extra-Long

MZD8391 Christmas Lights

$20 At Amazon

Our Ratings

• Brightness
  5/5
• Ease of Use
  5/5
• Quality
  4/5
• Length
  5/5
• Overall Value
  5/5

If you’re decorating your whole yard, the MZD8391 Christmas Lights are 105 feet long (the longest on our list), letting you cover more ground with just one strand. The lights come in a variety of color schemes, and there are 300 small LED bulbs per strand—just keep in mind that they’re very small, so they’re not the best choice for large-scale decor, like along a roofline. 

We loved the bright colors of these lights, and also liked that there were eight lighting effects to choose from, such as chasing, slow fade, and twinkling. The indoor/outdoor lights are waterproof and hold up just fine in inclement weather, and you can connect up to four of the strands together, covering more than 400 feet.

_{Bulb Type: LED | Bulb Shape: Not listed | Length: 105 feet | Maximum Connected Strands: 4}

Best Novelty

Huacenmy Solar Snowflake String Lights

$8 At Amazon

Our Ratings

• Brightness
  3/5
• Ease of Use
  4/5
• Quality
  4/5
• Overall Value
  4/5

The Huacenmy Outdoor Solar String Lights feature cute snowflake-shaped bulbs that make an adorable addition to your porch or outdoor living space. They’re powered by a small solar panel that stakes into the ground, and they even offer eight different lighting effects, including flashing, twinkling, fading, and more. The strand of lights is 30 feet long, and it features 50 LED snowflakes, each of which is roughly 2 inches wide.

We found that these solar lights were quite tricky to set up, as the snowflakes get quite tangled in the wire. However, once they were installed, we loved the pretty white light, even though it was not the brightest. The lights turn on automatically at dusk, and on cloudy or overcast days when the solar panel doesn’t get enough light. But, they do dim down after a few hours. 

_{Bulb Type: LED | Bulb Shape: Novelty | Length: 30 feet | Maximum Connected Strands: N/A}

Best Solar

Touch of Eco Solar-Powered LED Mini String Light

$20 At Amazon $19 At Walmart

Our Ratings

• Brightness
  3/5
• Ease of Use
  4/5
• Quality
  4/5
• Overall Value
  4/5

If you want to display Christmas lights in a location where there isn’t an electrical outlet handy, the Touch of Eco LITEUP125 Solar String Lights are a pretty and convenient option. This strand of lights is 68 feet long with 125 small LED bulbs, and it’s connected to a small solar panel that you can clip onto a nearby surface or stake into the ground.

As you might suspect, these lights aren’t the brightest option out there, and we found that they’re particularly dim when the weather is cloudy or rainy. The lights automatically turn on at dusk and stay on for up to eight hours, and they offer both solid or flashing light modes, which can be controlled from the back of the panel. However, the strand has a 12-foot lead wire, which we thought was unnecessarily long, as it cuts the lighted length down to 56 feet.

_{Bulb Type: LED | Bulb Shape: 5mm wide angle | Length: 68 feet | Maximum Connected Strands: N/A}

Best Rope Lights

The Holiday Aisle LED Christmas Rope Lights

$130 At Wayfair

Our Ratings

• Brightness
  5/5
• Ease of Use
  3/5
• Quality
  3/5
• Length
  4/5

For a bold, contemporary look, The Holiday Aisle LED Christmas Rope Lights are extremely bright and vibrant; they’re sure to catch the eye of everyone who drives by your home this holiday season. These rope-style lights feature LED bulbs inside clear PVC tubing, and they can be twisted and bent at any angle to easily match the space you’re decorating. 

These outdoor lights were the brightest of all the products we tested, and we loved that you’re able to cut them down into a shorter length if desired. However, the instructions for these lights are extremely poor, so it may take some trial and error to figure out how to connect strands, and the brand notes that the power cords and connectors aren’t waterproof. Finally, a word of caution: Make sure to completely remove the lights from the spool before plugging them in, as the PVC can melt if it gets warm—a lesson we learned the hard way.

_{Bulb Type: LED | Bulb Shape: Rope | Length: 150 feet | Maximum Connected Strands: N/A}

Best Waterproof

Pro Christmas 5mm LED Christmas Lights

$16 At Amazon View On Christmasdesigners.com

Our Ratings

• Brightness
  4/5
• Ease of Use
  4/5
• Quality
  5/5
• Length
  5/5
• Overall Value
  4/5

Professional-grade Christmas lights, such as the Pro Christmas 5mm Wide Angle Conical LED Lights, are made with a one-piece bulb and socket design. This prevents water and dirt from getting into the bulb and causing rust or corrosion, and it can help to ensure your displays don’t burn out prematurely. The particular professional-grade lights wowed us because they were so vibrant and beautiful. 

The Pro Christmas lights are 35 feet long and feature 50 5mm bulbs on green wire, and you can connect a whopping 60 strands end-to-end on one outlet. They’re UL-rated for outdoor use and held up great during rainstorms and windy days during testing. These outdoor Christmas lights come in a variety of color schemes, and while you’re not able to replace the one-piece bulbs, each LED light can last for up to 75,000 hours.

_{Bulb Type: LED | Bulb Shape: 5mm wide angle | Length: 26 feet | Maximum Connected Strands: 60}

Best Smart

Twinkly Strings Multicolor App-Controlled String Lights

$137 At Amazon $130 At Walmart $512 At Target

Don't settle for just one color or design when decorating this year. Smart lights make it easy to constantly switch between different colors and light shows depending on your mood. These string lights from Twinkly sync to an app on your smartphone through Bluetooth. From there, you can control the color, create light shows, sync the lights to music, group different strings of light for a cohesive look, and so much more. Plus, they have a lifespan of over 30,000 hours, so you'll have plenty of time to explore different settings.

No more forgetting to plug in your lights each night. Easily create timers and presets on your phone and light up your home from anywhere. You can even connect the lights to your Alexa or Google Home device for voice-controlled decorating. The IP44-certified weatherproof string lights are great for indoor and outdoor use, but the small bulb size may be better suited for trees, branches, and railings, rather than roof lines. The customizations only continue with the choice between green and black wire and four size options ranging from 26 to 157.5 feet.

_{Bulb Type: LED | Bulb Shape: 4.3mm | Length: 26, 65.5, 105, 157.5 feet | Maximum Connected Strands: Not Listed}

Best Net Lights

AWQ Christmas Net Lights

$23 At Amazon

If you need to cover a large area in dazzling lights, net lights might be right for you. Great for bushes and shrubs, these mesh-style lights would also look gorgeous draped over outdoor furniture, staircases or even staked into the grass to cover your full front lawn. These lights come in two sizes depending on the area you want to cover, but you can connect up to five strands for extra-large spaces.

The netting and the bulbs are IP44-rated, so they'll withstand rain and snow, but the power adapter is not waterproof, so ensure that it is in a covered area. Luckily, the power cord stretches over 16 feet, so it will be easy to place these lights anywhere in your space. As with many string lights, these net lights have eight light modes to choose from and come with a 6-hour timer, so your lights will automatically turn on every night. Choose from warm white, cool white, or multicolor. One thing about net lights is that they are difficult to store and can easily get tangled. We recommend ruling them around a cylinder-shaped object or folding them in individual bags. This will make it easier to unfold your lights for next year. It can also be difficult to replace bulbs on net lights and will likely require a wire cutter. Still, we love the equally disbursed illusion they create, especially on objects like shrubs and small trees.

_{Bulb Type: LED | Bulb Shape: Not Listed | Length: 9.8 x 6.6, 13.1 x 6.6 feet | Maximum Connected Strands: 5}

Best Icicle Lights

Knonew Curtain Fairy String Lights

$30 At Amazon

Whether you live in a snowy area or not, you can give the illusion of icicles hanging from your home with icicle string lights. Perfect for roof lines, these string lights feature various lengths of hanging strings with dispersed lights that mimic bright icicles. These from Knonew come in three lengths with energy-efficient and outdoor-safe LED bulbs. Each string comes with a waterproof end-to-end connector to connect up to three strands up to 99 feet with 1200 bulbs for large areas.

Depending on the color you choose, the lights feature 8-11 lighting modes and a timer for six hours of light and 18 hours off during the day. Choose from warm white or cool white for a neutral, cohesive look, or opt for multicolor or even red and green for a colorful holiday setup. Similar to the net lights, these may get tangled year after year, so make sure to take extra time and care to store these properly in a bin so they are easy to unravel and install next year.

_{Bulb Type: LED | Bulb Shape: Not Listed | Length: 33, 108, 164 feet | Maximum Connected Strands: 3}

Best Strip Lights

Govee WiFi Outdoor LED Strip Lights

$50 At Amazon $50 At Home Depot $50 At Target

Our Ratings

• Ease of Setup
  4/5
• Design
  5/5
• Brightness
  5/5
• Durability
  5/5
• Value
  4.5/5

Strip lights are an excellent option for even lighting along the lines of your house without the annoyance of a bulb going out mid-season. We tested this smart option from Govee, which adds extra convenience since everything can be controlled from your phone. While installing the strip light along the entire front of a house took over two hours, the instructions were rather intuitive, and setting up the app took less than five minutes.

Through the app, you can adjust the color and brightness of the lights so you can leave them up year-round and change them with the different seasons and holidays. This eliminates the chore of hanging the same lights year after year. You can also set timers, connect the lights to your Amazon Alexa or Google device, and even sync the lights up to music. We loved that the strip was barely noticeable when not turned on, which traditional string lights don't offer. You also don't have to settle for the wrong shade of white or green. Adjust the color using a color wheel for the most precise color matching possible. While more expensive than traditional string lights, the ability to leave these up for years at a time saves time and money in the long run.

_{Bulb Type: LED | Bulb Shape: N/A | Length: 32.8, 65.6 feet | Maximum Connected Strands: N/A}