Xmas lights...Might be a dumb question!

When you put lights up outside, the hanging ones, how do you plug them in? D you have to run an extension lead into the house? Because that might be a problem with having the door open and the cats :(

Do houses have plugs outside? I don't think mine does...

Also when it comes to outside lights where do you think is a good place to start? I have nonoe so thinking maybe some you put inside the windows? I can't afford too much and def not all over the outside lol!

Last year people down the road had a giant santa jumping on an inflatable trampoine lol!!!

What do you have??

we ran an extension lead through the window that plugged into the same point as the tree. we attached a powerboard off that and each of the lights plugged into that. we were able to attached all the leads to the house so that things weren't getting tangled

we inherited four sets (i think) of rope lights from my folks and had a couple ourselves. we also have three sets of icicle lights. ummmm, we have a santa we put up on the antenna (looks like he is climbing a rope), a huge star, and a plane that carries a Merry Christmas sign. we have LED light balls (seven i think - a couple were damaged on arrival so they sent replacements but i was able to fix them - yay!) but didn't use them last year - i think that is outside done


inside we have two short light sets that E chose last year - one is fibre optic, one is LED "sticks". we then have 30m (ish) of normal fairy lights that we hang in the lounge, and 60m of LED lights that go on the tree.

and that's just the lights... lots of other decos too! we're a little christmas nuts...

We have an outdoor outlet and there is another one in the power box on the side of the house. We use outdoor extention cords and timers. Dh goes crazy with lights at chrissy its awesome!! :) We have reindeer and christmas trees in the front yard, a sleigh too. Even the big tree in the front gets fairy lights in it. We have a santa christmas countdown where we count down the days. The whole roof has rope lights over it and a big star and a waving santa on the roof peaks. Icicles go all along the front awnings. Candy canes too. There are more but I can't remember :) Its lots of fun, we get lots of ppl through the street to look at them.

CQ - do you have an outlet in the garage that you can put a powercord from? Maybe you could put it under the garage door?

we buy the lights that have a really long line form the last light to the power plug. just feed them through the window and can close the window then.

All my windows have security screens :( And my garage is at the front of the house...I want to put the lights up at the back. HmmmmmI wonder if the landlords would notice if I put a teeny tiny hole in the screens lol!

We buy a few sets each year to build a stash, we feed most of our lines into the garage so i dont think im much help on that issue, im sure you could get away with putting a teeny tiny hole in the lower corner of the screen, although knowing my luck id do that and the hole would get bigger and bigger over time lol

We don't have any lights anymore we threw them out when we moved, because someone (me) accidently left them in a box outside and they got wet - so fearing we might do a Griswalds and set the house on fire I threw them out....hmmmm I am inspired now after reading this I want a santa on a trampoline!!!!:leap:

aaah so it is for the back - sorry babe thought it was for the front (which is why I suggested the garage)

If you are going to do a hole, tape the cord on both sides as well as around the hole with tape, also take the plug component off before you slide it through the window so you don't have to make a huge hole, just the size of the cord itself. Also replacing the screen isn't that hard to do (unless it is crimsafe type stuff), even with a security screen. If you get the urge to see how easy it is, I have to do one in the next week or so at my place.

Have you checked your power box? We do same sorts of things as Ezymay - not that I actually know much about it at all. It's DH's thing. My thing is to try and stop him spending too much money on it every year :)

Oh my , well we have hundreds of lights.
My Father in law had a tradition of decorating his whole front yard in lights, sadly he recently passed away. His wish was for my Hubby to take all his lights and put them up. So we have all his lights plus some 80 sets hubby brought last year, We also have moving reindeer, 8ft inflatable santas. We now have two because we brought FIL one . So many infact I have forgotten.
Lucky for us my Hubby is an electrician so he has set up a power box outside under our carport. He also is going to computer control them this year and set them so they flash on and off to music. ( I have no idea about this, except to know its a special programand the lights need special controllers) ,
Funnily enought this long weekend is being spent going through them all to check if they are all working etc..the kids think its great.

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we might do a Griswalds and set the house on fire

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rofl my DP informed me last Xmas he wants to do a house with lights like the Griswalds (of course minus the house fire, well at least we have no cat to start the fire, lol) :lol:

CQ if it makes you feel any better my DP wanted to ask the same question as we had NO idea how people have the poweroutlets for their outside lights, we too don't feel too secure about leading under the closed window that wouldn't seem closed IYKWIM harr harr ;)

We've got a solar powered set, they look really pretty and I feel virtuous using them!

Oooh now thats a good idea!

Lol S4U I feel alot better now!!

I noticed at Big W last year, there was a large range of solar-powered christmas lights. Nice alternative if you have plenty of sunshine in your yard.

I get heaps of sunlight in my garden! Yay!! When's the best time to buy (other than boxing day lol)??

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I noticed at Big W last year, there was a large range of solar-powered christmas lights. Nice alternative if you have plenty of sunshine in your yard.

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oh thanks for the tiptoo MD :thumbsup:, i never knew they existed. I did notice in BigW last week the Xmas decorations we getting put out, i better go have a proper look now :D