Christmas Lights

Some of you may remember last year's post about our Christmas lights.


It was the first year we'd ever officially had any lights. I spent a lot of time trying to find some LED lights and Ryan spent a lot of time hanging them up. I was so grateful that he hung them despite not wanting to! However, I really did not like them once they were up (that is a huge understatement) . They didn't hang in a nice straight line (very obvious next to our neighbor's immaculate lights), but also there was something totally messed up about the LED lights. Some of them looked more like a yellow light and some were more of a white. And they were smaller than I had thought they would be.

So this year when I saw several neighbors out hanging their lights two weeks before Thanksgiving, I started thinking of my game plan for this year. Top priority: new lights. Next priority: getting Ryan to hang them on BOTH roof lines.

I went and bought a new set of lights from Target. These were definitely better than last year's set . . . bigger and they looked more like an incandescent bulb. I brought the 5 boxes home and let them sit by the back door for Ryan to notice -- let him get used to the idea without me having to say anything.

But then as I was looking at a few of the neighbors' lights, I started to worry that I still wouldn't be happy with these new ones. I learned that at least one of the neighbors got their lights from Sprinkler World. Since I loved their lights, I thought I better try it. (Before talking to them I honestly didn't know where else to look for lights besides Home Depot and Target/Wal Mart.)

To make a long story short, I went to Sprinkler World and learned that I could customize the colors and such. To buy anything I needed to know a few things: which colors, incandescent or LED, and how many feet to buy. Since I had no answers to any of those questions, I decided I better take my time to do it right.

I looked at Modern Display to compare prices. I came home and counted all the bulbs on my neighbor's same roof line (thanks, Myers!). I went to the Home Show specifically to get a supposed discount they had told me about. When I showed up at their booth, the lady gave me a $5 off coupon. I pretty much laughed at her, but I decided instead to ask specifically about the type of lights I wanted. I had to wait around for the "lights guy" to show up to the booth. Another long story short, he ended up offering me the same pricing he gives to the contractors!

I took the weekend to think about it. Incandescent vs. LED: LED's are better for the environment and the electricity bill, but the upfront cost was a lot more. (The "contractor deal" I got had cut their price by about half, but they were still significantly more.) However, they were definitely better quality than the LED's I'd found last year. Incandescent have a nice glow to them, but LED's are the lights of the future. Do I want to invest in regular custom lights and in a few years wish I'd gotten the LED's? But would the LED's look good or would I be just as unhappy as I was with last year's lights? Oh, the dilemma!

Ryan wasn't much help at first, since he was probably frustrated that I wanted to spend money on more lights this year when we had just bought some last year. And of course he was going to be the one to have to hang them -- so fun (insert sarcasm)! But once he realized I was set on getting new lights, he did help me pick the colors: red, white, and green.

The Monday before Thanksgiving, I went back to Sprinkler World and got our new lights. I used my charm to get the guy to give me a guarantee: I'd buy the LED's, but if I didn't like them I could bring them back for the incandescent bulbs instead :)

Luckily the weather for the Thanksgiving weekend cooperated very nicely. No rain or snow, and it was a little warmer than it had been earlier in the week. Ryan, being the wonderful man that he is, had a good attitude and got out there and hung the lights. He recruited Nathan to help. It was so fun for me to see them working together!

On Friday they hung the lower roof line. Nathan worked on putting the clips on (I helped a little, too) while Ryan would hang them.

On Saturday it was time for the upper roof line. I know that Ryan was a little nervous about this for the obvious safety reasons. The ends were a little tricky, but with a neighbor's ladder and some trial and error, they were able to figure it out. Nathan LOVED that he got to go out on the roof! But he was nervous about being the one to get on the ladder -- until it was done and then he bragged about it to his grandparents!

The angle of this picture makes it look like Nathan is near the bottom roof line. No worries -- he's no where close to the edge!

Ryan held the ladder firmly in place while Nathan hung the lights on the ends.

So excited to be out on the roof!

I LOVE our new lights. They look so much better than any picture I took could portray. Definitely worth the investment for me to be happy!

This would be the most accurate picture if it weren't blurry.

This looked much brighter and crisper on my camera. Maybe it will look better on your computer screen than it does on mine.

They are up at the start of the Christmas season! They are nice and straight! The white bulbs are all the same color of white, and it is a true white instead of a yellowish white! They are big enough! They are Christmas colors! (Seriously, why don't they make more strands that come in boxes that are red/white or red/green? These are CHRISTMAS lights, after all!)

I want to believe that the whole process really wasn't as bad as Ryan had anticipated. And now that the system for hanging the lights has been figured out, maybe he'll even be excited to hang them next year . . . I can dream, can't I?!