How to Hang Christmas Lights Outdoors Safely

Take a Picture of Your House

Before you do anything else, head to the curb and snap a few photos of the front of your house from the street. Viewing your home from the perspective of your neighbors or people driving by will help you make sense of your design plan and allow you to take in your home from the vantage point of those that will actually be enjoying your holiday handiwork.

Consider your house in its entirety—obviously, you'll want to put some lights along the roofline, but what about the porch, windows, and around your yard? Keep in mind that everywhere is fair game!

Measure Where the Lights Will Hang

Use a tape measure to estimate the width or height of the area where you're hoping to hang your light strands. If you'd like to avoid an extra trip up the ladder and if your roofline is flat, another way of estimating the width or length of the area you want to hang lights is to measure the width of your house at its base. While not precise to the inch, it gives you a decent idea of how many feet or strands of lights are needed.

Ensure Lights Are for Outdoor Use

When buying lights, look for a box marked for outdoor (or indoor/outdoor) use. This will ensure they can withstand a variety of outdoor elements like rain, snow, and frozen temperatures—you don't want to hang up more fragile indoor tree lights outdoors, only to have them die out in a week or two! When purchasing your lights, it's worthwhile to also look for the label "UL" on any box you're considering—this indicates that they were tested for safety by Underwriters Laboratories.

Buy Plastic Light Clips

For an easy time putting up (and taking down!) your outdoor Christmas lights, do yourself a favor and purchase a few sets of light clips. These handy and inexpensive pieces not only help you save time while decorating, but they also help prevent damage to your house, eliminating the need for nails, staples, or other conventional fasteners. Bonus: These flexible plastic clips can hold any type of light strand, including icicles and strands of the larger C7 and C9 bulbs, and should hold up for several seasons.

Test Your Lights Before Hanging

Save yourself a ton of time (not to mention potential disappointment) by testing each strand of lights before hanging it on your home. In addition, give each set of lights. a quick once-over, keeping an eye out for any broken or missing bulbs, which can still cause issues down the line, even if the lights are currently working. Many strands come with replacement bulbs, so if you're unpacking new sets of lights, set those aside somewhere you can find them if replacements are necessary.

Attach the Clips to the Strings

Snap the plastic hangers onto the light strands, as directed by the clip manufacturer. Space the clips six to 12 inches apart, based on your intended design and how straight you want your strands to be.

Attach the Clips to Your Home

Hang your lights by attaching the plastic clips onto your gutters, siding, railings, roofline, or anywhere else that will help your holiday design come to life. This is where that image you took at the beginning is helpful. If you want to avoid having to climb up and down your ladder to continually check your design, keep that shot on hand as a blueprint.

Collect Excess Wire for Even Spacing

Because light strands come with a foot or so of excess unlit wire, loosely roll up and clip the extra cord into one of the unused portions of the clip, rolling the wire so that the light spacing is even.

Attach Lights With Plastic Zip Ties

If you live in an area that experiences harsh winter weather, consider adding a few zip ties to your lighting design for extra security. High winds, heavy snow, and ice storms can all damage your carefully-constructed holiday light design, so think of the zip ties as an added line of defense against that. You can often find them in different colors, too (like black, white, grey, and more), so matching them to your light strand will be super simple.

Turn on the Lights

Plug the male end of the last strand into an outdoor-rated extension cord. Then plug the extension cord into an outdoor outlet, preferably controlled by an on/off switch, automatic timer, or app. Always plug outdoor lights into a GFCI-protected outlet, which help prevent shock due to moisture and other common causes of short circuits.