7 Time-Saving Christmas Light and Decor Hacks You Need to Know

With Christmas approaching, it’s a time for joy and giving. However, it’s also a period filled with busy schedules and lengthy to-do lists. Many of us feel the ongoing pressure to complete tasks, from baking cookies and shopping for presents to spending time with loved ones and, naturally, decorating.

While everyone revels in the beauty of Christmas lights and ornaments, setting them up annually can be time-consuming. During the festive season, people often find themselves working extended hours, managing Christmas performances, attending office gatherings, and hurriedly purchasing gifts. All at once.

Fortunately, there are numerous ways to reduce the time spent on lighting and decorating your home for Christmas. We’ve compiled a list of tips and tricks for your holiday decorations that you might not have considered. With our practical advice on products and methods, you’ll save significant time decorating this season.

1. Christmas Trees: Wrap Vertically from Trunk to Tip Instead of Horizontally

For outdoor evergreens and Christmas trees, most people wrap lights in horizontal spirals around the tree. The light strand encircles the tree with each wrap, moving towards the top.

Many are unaware that this is a more complex and time-intensive way to light your Christmas tree. Minutes add up when maneuvering the string around the tree for each wrap. With larger trees like outdoor evergreens, you must circle around the tree, avoiding obstacles such as walls and other trees.

Wrapping your tree lights vertically can considerably reduce installation time. This method is favored by the decorators at New York City’s Rockefeller Center, who illuminate one of the nation’s most renowned Christmas trees. David Murback, the gardens division manager, states this technique offers “not just a shell of light but an inner glow and a three-dimensionality that cannot be achieved any other way.”

Begin by dividing your tree into thirds. Apply lights from trunk to tip, carefully weaving the lights through the branches. Ensure even light distribution along the tree. Once your tree is lit, you’ll end up back at the bottom, giving you better control in managing excess lights and lighting the back of the tree.

2. Employ TreE-Z Wraps for Outdoor Trees, Columns, and Bannisters

To speed up light wrapping for outdoor trees, columns, and poles, use a few TreE-Z wraps. These thin yet durable plastic strips grip the light strings with their “teeth” and stay along your surface. Loop the light strings around the TreE-Z wrap and work your way up the tree. The teeth ensure even spacing for the lights along the tree trunk. TreE-Z wraps not only secure your lights but also offer extra protection from weather and foot traffic from squirrels—because there’s nothing worse than replacing lights mid-season due to rodents.

3. Utilize Plug-and-Go Products That Require No Wrapping

While string lights create a magical ambiance in your yard, applying them around foliage and setting up plugs and timers can be time-consuming. Fortunately, various light displays require no wrapping. Using LED decorations like snowflakes, foldable spheres, and starlight spheres can save installation time. Simply use a sticky hook on windows, eye hooks along your roofline, a screw into brick, or a zip tie for tree branches, fences, or gates. If your yard lacks trees or shrubs, flat displays like snowflakes and foldable spheres can be hung on buildings and walls.

Rope Light Snowflakes

LED snowflakes are a versatile addition, adding a winter wonderland effect to outdoor displays, buildings, and HOA entrances.

Foldable Spheres

Collapsing flat for storage, LED foldable spheres are hollow, weather-resistant, and give a stunning finish along trees. They are also great as fillers for hollow light trees.

LED Spheres

These luminous orbs are especially beautiful when hanging from trees, reminiscent of ornaments and snow globes.

Battery-Operated Light Wreaths

We suggest a 24” wreath for home doorways along with some battery-operated 5mm conical lights. For a side of a home, fence, or gate, a 36″ or larger wreath would look splendid.

4. Use Attachment Accessories and Leave Them on After the Season

Using stakes and light clips for C7 or C9 lights can keep your lights straight and steady. A significant advantage of these accessories is easier and quicker installation and removal. There’s no need for drilling holes, using a glue gun, or removing staples after the season.

Once attached to each socket the first time, stakes can be left on for the next year’s setup. Many clips are designed to remain on the socket with the bulb, such as flex clips, tuff clips, circle clips, and shingle tabs. These attachment accessories also make takedown faster. With clips and stakes firmly secured, a gentle pull will free the light line from the roof or ground.

Labeling light runs helps in remembering their placement next year. Check out our takedown video for the best practices on storing your lights for a quick setup next year.

5. Magnetic Light Line

Any light clip can expedite your installation and removal process. However, if you have a ferrous metal fence, roofline, or gutter, you can avoid using clips by opting for Lite-netics magnetic light line. This empty socket light line features a strong magnet inside each socket, eliminating the need for clips. The light line attaches directly to any magnetic surface, so if you’re fortunate to have a ferrous metal fence or roof, the magnetic empty socket line is perfect for you.

Moreover, the magnetic light line facilitates both the installation and the quick straightening of wires in case of any mishaps. Simply give the line a gentle pull to tighten it, ensuring the bulbs are evenly spaced.

6. Low-level illumination solutions

Illuminating the roofline remains our preferred method for adorning a house with Christmas lights. However, this task demands roof access, time commitment, and involves the dangers of working at height with ladders. Not everyone is either equipped or inclined to string up Christmas lights along their roof or to hire a professional. Hence, when you want to save time and streamline your outdoor Christmas decorations, consider focusing on the lower sections of your yard.

Bushes and hedges offer some of the most convenient and rapid options for Christmas lighting. We favor string lights for a polished and scattered aesthetic, while net lights can expedite the process significantly. If you’re planning several months in advance, planting small shrubs can provide ideal canvases for Christmas lights later on. These shrubs are perfect for accentuating key areas of your yard, filling gaps in flower beds, and are incredibly simple to wrap with lights.

So if you have a few months for preparation, plant evergreen shrubs around your front yard bed. They will be excellent canvases for showcasing Christmas lights.

Columns and branch trees provide excellent surfaces for spiral wraps with string lights. Spiral wrapping requires more time and more materials, particularly for broader tree trunks and elements that are further from power sources.

7. Opt for professional-grade Christmas lights and decorations

We’ve emphasized it before, and we’ll stress it again… the most efficient way to save time on holiday decorating is to utilize professional-grade lights and materials. Over time, investing in commercial-quality Christmas decorations will save you time by preventing the issues associated with lower-quality products. You can anticipate less troubleshooting during setup, better electrical management, and fewer light bulb or string replacements. Additionally, commercial-grade decorations often come with UV coatings, which offer protection against damage and fading from the sun.

Trust us… There’s nothing more frustrating than replacing bulbs, fixing faulty light strings, or dealing with power outages amid the season. Durable professional light strings like Pro Christmas with sealed construction offer excellent resistance to wind, water, snow, dirt, and other harsh winter conditions.

What should a Christmas enthusiast do when time is running short for decorating? By simplifying your design, investing in high-quality commercial decorations that offer easy setup, and employing some effective techniques, you can make Christmas lighting less time-consuming and more manageable this year. Don’t forget to visit our YouTube channel for useful tips, installation tutorials, and best practices for Christmas lighting. We’re here to assist you in making the most of your Christmas season, so feel free to contact us via phone or email with any questions you may have.