Holiday Lights?

[Bini]

Curious if and how you do holiday lights outside your home. Do you put lights up all around the roof? Or just one strip along the front, maybe sides of roof? And if you have multiple levels, do you bother hanging lights on the upper roofs? Do you leave the lights up all year round? Or do you take them down after New Years?

[Guest]

This really depends on how your roof is designed. If you have a high cross-gabled roof where the triangle (or several of them) is facing front, there's no need to do more than just lining one strip on the bottom roof line. This looks even better with the icicle lights. A high gabled roof that slopes down towards the front or a hip roof or a saltbox roof would make the house look really short with just the bottom line lighted and looks even worse with icicle lights. My house is like this, so I do a simple string of lights outlining the entire roof. If your house has multi-level roof line, lining the bottom of each level would be enough.

We put up the lights on Thanksgiving weekend and take down the lights on Feast of the Magi. We leave the clips all year round.

Now here's another question... do you light up the roof facing the back too? We haven't done this but I plan to do it when I have money to buy more lights because my backyard backs up to the lake and it is really pretty looking at the house from across the lake.

Edited December 2, 2013 by anatess

[Bini]

This really depends on how your roof is designed. If you have a high cross-gabled roof where the triangle (or several of them) is facing front, there's no need to do more than just lining one strip on the bottom roof line. This looks even better with the icicle lights. A high gabled roof that slopes down towards the front or a hip roof or a saltbox roof would make the house look really short with just the bottom line lighted and looks even worse with icicle lights. My house is like this, so I do a simple string of lights outlining the entire roof. If your house has multi-level roof line, lining the bottom of each level would be enough.

We put up the lights on Thanksgiving weekend and take down the lights on Feast of the Magi. We leave the clips all year round.

Now here's another question... do you light up the roof facing the back too? We haven't done this but I plan to do it when I have money to buy more lights because my backyard backs up to the lake and it is really pretty looking at the house from across the lake.

That sounds beautiful, overlooking the lake from your backyard, wow! I would still light up that side of the house, even if only your family gets to enjoy it. We don't have a lot of action behind us, just a row of homes that are on the plateau above us and mountain side. We've pretty much decided to do lights on the front and sides. We have a gabled roof.

[Just_A_Guy]

We just bought our house last year and don't have disposable funds for roofline lights yet--we content ourselves with outlining the first-floor windows and the porch/stair rail with lights.

The back of our house faces the field for the local elementary school, separated only by a short chain-link fence, so you can see our house clearly from the schoolyard. One of these years (but not this year) Just_A_Girl and I are thinking of dressing a mannequin in a Santa suit and hanging/suspending it from our back roofline the day after Christmas so that the kiddies can get a full view of it when school starts up again.

[Quin]

I keep white lights on my porch year round (for socializing, reading, etc.) twined into my jasmine, clematis, & bougainvillea.

During the holidays there is a white light explosion as they infect all surrounding surfaces.

Trees, garland on fence, wreaths, and the outlines of my house & windows BUT NOT my roof peak, as I have something clost to a 90degree slope. Obviously it's not that bad, but it's close. And there's no place to attach a climbing rope for my harness, so it's just too dangerous. My neighbors are also too close to get the right angle on my 20' ladder.

I love climbing on rooves, and have spent significant time on top of most of mine. But not this one!

Inside on the tree we have colorful lights.

I like the juxtaposition of austere white outside and a riot of color inside.

Q

[Guest]

I found a roof line that looks similar to my house. And it's lighted up the exact same!

My roof is all white with the big bulbs like this one but my yard has multiple colors, not just white.

You know what I don't like? The blow up Christmas yard decor that looks like a parachute landed on the yard in the morning...

[Bini]

For the last five years we've had coloured bulbs but this year I'm contemplating clear white ones. And I'm with you on the blow-up Christmas décor, not for me, but something like that is always fun for little kids.

[Dravin]

We don't do lights.

[Bini]

We don't do lights.

Our culdesac doesn't do any lights either. We'll be the only ones. But further spread out in the neighbourhood there are lots of decorated houses.

[Smudge]

I would do lights - but 1) I am scared of hieghts which makes putting them up rather a challenge and 2) I live in a rented ground floor apartment - not much scope for decorating

[Guest]

I would do lights - but 1) I am scared of hieghts which makes putting them up rather a challenge and 2) I live in a rented ground floor apartment - not much scope for decorating

I used to live in a 2nd floor apartment with a small screened-in patio (12x5 feet) that faces the community pond with a water fountain. That patio is Lit Up like no tomorrow. I even had animated lighted reindeer on it. :)