During the holidays, we give special attention to decor, and one of the best ways to make spirits brighter and hearts lighter, is by choosing the right lighting.
How Decorative Lighting Can Spread Holiday Cheer In and Outside Your Home
Decor can make or break a mood. When it comes to the holiday season, lighting and decor can play an even bigger role. One of the best ways to go all out for the holidays is by investing in all of the trappings necessary to create the right atmosphere to keep you and your guests in festive spirits. The holiday season now stretches from early fall all the way through the end of the year, and each holiday serves as an opportunity to utilize the spaces where we celebrate.
Long gone are the days when a few pumpkins or wreaths are the standard. Instead, the sky is now, almost literally, the limit. Investing in smart, creative lighting can be just the thing to turn an average space into the perfect place for celebrations to occur and memories to be made.
Lighting spreads cheer, even indoors
A failure to capitalize on the space within your home, is also a missed opportunity to spread cheer and good tidings that reminds the viewer throughout the days that the season of merriment is upon us. Nothing says, “cheer” quite like seasonal light displays.
One of the best parts of the holidays is that it seamlessly ties the present-day to tradition, and allows for opportunities to look back and ponder what the season means to each of us as individuals as well as collectively. Thus, options like nostalgic antique lighting bulbs can tie the memory and wonderment of the holidays together for young and old alike.
Or, consider going a totally modern route by investing in LED Christmas lights. They’re likely going to cost more at the outset, but they’ll end up saving you in the long-run given the fact that they use far less energy--approximately 90 percent less energy than incandescent light bulb choices.
Taking advantage of modern decor options doesn’t have to end with the lighting you choose, either. Shatterproof ornaments are a similar innovation that solve a common problem of the past.
While virtually indistinguishable from their breakable counterparts, they will make their value known upon the very first time they accidentally tumble to the ground. You’ll be surprised to see that there’s actually nothing to see if they’re dropped--there’ll be no glass-shard laden floor to navigate, just an ornament to pick up!
Novelty lighting is the fast track to dramatic holiday effects
What would the holidays be without the lighting that makes them so magical? How differently would holiday shopping be without the displays of both the stores and the streets that light the way? Similarly, can you imagine a Christmas movie without the over-worked protagonist competing with his neighbors to achieve the best Christmas display?
Whether inside or out, the right bulbs can take holiday lighting from average to flashy and remarkable.
- Spook factor: black bulbs are a conundrum of decor. The whole point of lighting is to, you guessed it, light the way. Black lights do that, but they do it by cloaking the darkness in a different kind of darkness. What could possibly be better for All Hallow’s Eve?
- Christmas light displays: The holiday light displays that are most memorable are those that use light bulbs as a tool of creativity and expression. One of the vehicles used by the great lighting artists? Colored bulbs. And their top-secret weapon for orchestrating the most magical of displays: the humble extension cord, of course.
Outdoors during the holidays: better and brighter with flood lights
With all the beauty that comes along with the colder months of the year, one of the downsides is that there is less natural light to spend time with loved ones outside. As the nights cool they often offer the perfect chance to relax and focus on the festivities. But only if you have the right lights to allow you and yours to enjoy yourself, and stay safe while you’re at it.
Consider flood lights for the outside of your home, which will not only bring a welcomeness and warmth, but they’ll also boost safety. The number one cause of accidental death at home is falling, but falling in or around your home doesn’t have to happen--the options to prevent it are there.
Lighting that keeps things bright even at night is perfect for something like showcasing the autumn corn maze you’ve been dying to show-off or keeping your well-built snow family from going unappreciated. Plus, colored flood lights are now available that will make even the most brisk of evenings feel welcoming and festive.
If you’re interested in having less dramatic lighting, consider simply relying on your lit-up Jack O’Lanterns to light the way to the entryway of your home, or if you have a covered patio, vanity bulbs can be used to create a laid-back atmosphere.
Light the way
With decorative bulbs you can light it up literally, for sure. But, creative, smart use of lighting also allows you to cast the right atmosphere for the holiday ambiance as a whole. Often, we can be tempted to consider lighting as an afterthought; it is at the most basic level a practical tool after all.
But really, its potential goes so far beyond just a means to end. Instead, creative agency lies with an individual who understands the power that even just a light bulb, if it’s the right light bulb, can have on a space, a gathering, and by extension, an entire holiday experience.
