Ok, since everyone is clamoring for it, here is KSUdub's guide to Christmas lighting your house like a boss. this is gonna have to be in several parts for easy reading.
First thing you've got to decide is how big to go with your display. My first suggestion is don't half-ass this. Focus on an area and do it well. We're going to start with the house. Think if this as your aerial assault before the ground incursion. If you've got a two-story house and you only do the lower level, it's gonna look half-ass. Plan on hitting every major window, door, garage door, and roof line. this might require an extension ladder. They're easy to find used on Craigslist and store easily by hanging from your garage wall or ceiling.
Next, the lights. LED is really the only way to go at this point. Too many advantages over incandescent. More durable, longer lasting, and way less energy consumption, which saves on utilities and also makes it way easier to connect large displays.
The two main bulb sizes for house decoration are C7 or C9. Like buying a TV, you won't ever regret going bigger. C7 is ok for small homes pretty close to the street, but for anything else C9s are the way to go. (Note, you can also go with the dangly icicle light direction, or other specialty bulbs, but that is not my preferred look so it is outside this tutorial).
You need to understand that LEDs are
directional.
This is important! Unlike incandescent, which cast an even glow, LEDs are much brighter when viewed head-on than from the side. This means that (1) you'll want bulbs designed to diffuse the light as much as possible to create more of a multi-directional glow, and (2) you'll want to orient the bulbs so they point outward toward the street - not up towards the sky or down towards the ground (this will be important when we discuss fasteners later on)!
See these bulbs? The pinecone texture helps diffuse the light. This is what you want.
When buying lights, don't buy the crap at the big box stores which come pre-wired in set lengths. Those bulbs are cheaper, dimmer (only 1 LED), and often can't be replaced. A good LED bulb has at least 3 LEDs. So when you shop LED Christmas Lights, search for "LED Replacement Bulbs." That will get you to the right stores. These bulbs screw into the same stringers that the old incandescents used. These babies retail for around $1 per bulb, but you can sometimes find them cheaper on eBay. Make sure to buy all your bulbs from the same manufacturer because LED color can vary significantly!
Regarding white, you can buy "warm white" of "cool white," but there is only one choice here. Warm white. If you are even considering the bluish "cool white" bulbs, get the eff out of my tutorial.
You can also choose between non-dimmable and more expensive dimmable LED bulbs. You only need dimmable if you plan to set your lights to music and do fade effects, etc. That's beyond this tutorial. I stick with the non-dimmable.
In the next entry, we're gonna talk stringers.
