Christmas String Lights & Projectors — Indoor and Outdoor

Light is what turns a decorated room into a festive one, and it is the only decoration anyone sees from the street. It is also where most people get it wrong: you buy a length at random, and come up two metres short of going round the tree.

The deciding factor is power. Mains lights are the brightest but need a socket within reach. Battery models go anywhere, including a table or a window display, at the cost of changing batteries mid-season. Solar asks for nothing at all and stays outside all winter, but it switches on at dusk whether you want it to or not.

A single light source makes one bright point in a dark room. Two or three make an atmosphere: a string on the tree, a strip hidden behind furniture to wash the wall, a projector on the house front. The combination is what reads as a decorated home — not the output of one device.

For outdoor use, check the weatherproof rating before buying: indoor lights put outside survive a few days of rain, not a winter. Measure around your tree before choosing a length too — roughly three metres of string per metre of height gives a dense result.