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 Decorating for festivals seems to be something steadily growing in fashion over the last century, with one of the largest aspects of decorating being the use of holiday outdoor lights. Whether it be Christmas, New Years, Halloween, Easter or Independence Day, drives up and down the residential streets of America, as well as many countries around the world, will reveal the sheer love the people of this world have for the employment of radiance to celebrate their festivals.
Placing candles or small lanterns around one’s home have been used for centuries to create illumination when decorating for festivities, but it was not until the early nineteen-hundreds, when very select cities and venues began carefully using bright bulbs, that the concept of outside illumination became a reality over the next hundred years. It was the use of electric outside lanterns in nineteen-fifty-six in McAdenville, North Carolina that would begin the era of outside lanterns as a mainstream piece of festive enrichment.
One of the biggest differences between outside and indoor lanterns is their resistance to moisture and weather conditions. Lamps specified for nature use are made specially to not allow any form of moisture to affect them or cause shortages. Also these bulbs and wires are made to be able to resist extreme temperatures, to be as fire proof as possible, and to be grounded as a fail-safe to prevent shock when moisture is present. One other major difference can be found in the fact outside lamps are wired parallel instead of in series, as is the case with indoor bulbs. This means if one bulb burns out, the whole string of lamps will not go out, preventing the owner from having the immediate need of taking the lanterns down and replacing them. Outside lamps also have a different Underwriter’s Laboratories, or UL tag and label than their inside relatives. This tag will be found on the wire in red or silver with red writing and clearly labeled for outside use.
When purchasing holiday outdoor lights, there are several bulb styles to consider such as C7’s, C9’s, miniatures, rope lanterns, and LED’s. When thinking of traditional Christmas lanterns, C7’s and C9’s are what come to mind. Miniatures were later developed to provide more illumination under the same power requirements as the C7’s and C9’s. All three of these bulb types come in strings of twenty-five to one thousand, with the main difference being the large size difference of the C7’s and C9’s between miniatures, and the fact miniatures are wired in series.
The next development in the world of holiday outdoor lights was rope lanterns. These are very similar to the mini’s but are placed into clear PVC tubing to provide extremely easy perimeter installation for the festive decorator, and come in rolls of fifty to one hundred-fifty feet. All of the bulbs can also be purchased in LED versions for much better energy consumption and radiance. Other popular holiday outdoor lights include net lanterns, garland lamps, illuminated nativity sets, illuminated Halloween characters, light sculptures, stars, and illuminated motifs.
No matter when one reads this article, a holiday is sure to be close. So, be sure to check with online retailers to find the latest innovations of holiday outdoor lights to make one’s festivities as bright as possible.
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