12 Days of a GREEN Christmas- Day 6: Christmas Lights

Are Christmas lights one of your favorite parts of Christmas, like me? I love putting lights up around our house inside and out. I also love the time right around Thanksgiving when you start to see people put out their lights. One day you’re just driving around and then all the sudden you start to see pops of CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!

Well, there are sustainable ways to use Christmas lights.

LED lights

If you aren’t already using LED lights then it’s time to consider them. They’re more energy efficient than incandescent lights, using about 90% less energy. They’re also said to last longer, so this will hopefully solve the problem of half your lights not working each year and you needing to replace. If you’re looking for a comparable white light to incandescent look for “warm white”.

Timers

To reduce energy use put your lights on timers, set your times to only run for a few hours or only while you’re around to see them. Another option to lights is to use smart plugs, these are helpful so when you leave the house you can easily turn off your Christmas tree when leaving the house or room. No need to climb under tree to unplug or to step on the extension cord. I don’t think it gets any easier than this:

“Alexa, turn off Christmas”