The holidays are upon us and soon it will be 2020 and all of the clearance sales will begin. This is the time that many people choose to buy Christmas lighting for the year to come at deeply discounted prices. Here are a few things to consider if LED lights are on your post holiday shopping list.

No matter if you prefer white or multi-colored Christmas tree lighting, LED lighting may be the best choice for you. These lights have been on the market for several years now, but only in the last couple of years have they become affordable for us regular folks. Yes, they still are more expensive than miniature classic tree lighting, but they are just worth it in my opinion.

So what do I mean by a safer choice? Classic Christmas tree lighting use a lot of energy and some of this energy consumption is wasted in the form of heat. Did you know that most manufacturers recommend that you only string about three of the strands together. How many strands did you put on your tree last year that were stranded together? Was it four or five? If you strand too many of them together, you can overload the wiring and this could cause a fire. No, I am not being an alarmist about this. Christmas tree fires are a very real phenomenon every holiday season. Most people do not water their tree adequately, so they literally become a fire waiting to happen if you are not careful.

One thing is sure: LED Christmas lights use less energy than regular incandescent Christmas lights. So compared to the large Christmas string lights and even the miniature Christmas lights you may have grown up with, LEDs are the better choice from an energy point of view. In addition, they make sense for outdoor Christmas lighting, because they don’t require maintenance and have a long life.

Another thing is sure as well: LED lighting is here to stay. It has market traction, and the industry is promoting it enthusiastically. For example, one of the big building supply chains has just launched a recycle-your-old-Christmas-lights campaign, offering a discount on LED Christmas tree lights for every string of incandescent lights customers turn in. With this kind of jump-start early in the season, sales will be off the charts this year.

Here is another benefit of using LED Christmas tree lighting. If you decorate for Christmas elaborately with hundreds of lighting strands, then you could actually see some savings on your electric bill. No, I am not kidding. The difference in wattage is amazing. Traditional lighting strands use anywhere from a 5 watt to a 10 watt bulb. LED lights are only a fraction of that. A typical 100 light strand of LED lights will consume less than 4 watts per strand. Wow, those savings could really add up if you use hundreds of strands.

LED Christmas lights are pretty cool. But that’s exactly the problem in some shoppers’ eyes. They’re too cool.

LED lighting has a different spectral quality. Some people feel it’s heavy on the blues and light on the yellows, reds, golds and tans – all the colors at the toasty end of the spectrum. Granted, this is subjective. But if you’re sensitive to the quality of light, LEDs may not be your choice, especially if you’re aiming for a warm, cozy feel. The new lights get mixed reviews and go over like a LED balloon among some traditionalists and aesthetes.