Tis the season for Christmas lights.

By Jane Moore

The Christmas season is fast approaching. The first week of December often heralds the beginning of Christmas decorating including the putting up of festive Christmas lights. Although, the fact of Christmas lighting has remained constant for decades, the actual Christmas lights have undergone an enormous evolution.

At first glance it seems as though Christmas lights and Christmas decorations rarely change. We still use the same wreaths, garlands, mistletoe, stars and angels that out grandparents did. We still hang Christmas lighting from the edges of our roof tops. One of the special things about Christmas is the cherished continuity. It always feels the same. However, in reality Christmas lights have undergone a metamorphosis.

Historically, Christmas decorative lighting was cumbersome. It was heavy and fragile which is always a bad combination. Each individual light was hand screwed into the string of lights. One burnt out light bulbs caused havoc. Each bulb had to be individually tested to find the offending bulb. Each year multiple replacement bulbs were required. In short old fashioned strings of Christmas lights were beautiful and joyous but often a big fat hassle.

Science has made stringing our homes with Christmas lights much easier. These days Christmas lighting is almost entirely composed of efficient LED lighting. These new strings of lights are reasonably priced, energy efficient, durable, light weight and last a long time. Putting the lights up and taking them down is no longer a burden.

Given their light weight and small size, these wonderful new LED lights are perfect for creating single standalone focal pieces such as light stars. The addition of a three dimensional light star to your Christmas lighting scheme will be dramatic. Light stars are reasonably priced and come in many sizes.

The season of glorious Christmas lighting is upon us. Embrace the opportunity to decorate your home for the festive season. Feel free to experiment with Christmas lights schemes. - 32397

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Some news about Holiday lighting with LED Christmas Light Bulbs

By Dewey Finn

Discount-light-bulbs.com is new ecommerce website specializing in energy-efficient holiday lighting, offers the most efficient and reliable brand of LED holiday lights currently available. In recent testing of a variety of LED Christmas lights , the product offered by other Holiday LED suppliers outperformed the competition.

HolidayLEDs' LED Christmas lights (and LED string lights of several other manufacturers) were sent to the EPA for testing under the ENERGY STAR program. The following are highlights of the results of the ENERGY STAR testing.

What is a LIFE TIME TEST. This test is designed to determine the performance of the product after extended use. All LED string light samples from the participating manufacturers were illuminated for a 24-hour conditioning period and then entered a 1,000 hour period of actual use.

ACCELERATED WEATHERING TESTS. After a 24-hour conditioning period, all lights sets were subjected to high humidity and UV radiation, simulating outdoor use for an extended period. All samples underwent 20 cycles of accelerated aging, 12-hours per cycle for a total of 240 hours.

Here is some more news:

Oct 15, 2008 - Alpharetta, GA -- Alpharetta, Georgia-based Christmas Lights Etc. one of the largest U.S. suppliers of premium Christmas trees, decorations and holiday lighting for homes, commercial decorators and businesses is proud to announce its' partnership with ENERGY STAR, a joint program by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

For years Christmas Lights Etc. has provided customers with low energy consumption, environmentally friendly products including LED Christmas Lights and pre-lit LED Artificial Christmas Trees, Christmas Wreaths and Christmas Garland. Today, in partnership with ENERGY STAR, Christmas Lights Etc. continues its commitment to a greener Christmas by offering consumers over 75 different products bearing the ENERGY STAR label. This to insure that ChristmasLightsEtc.com customers are presented with the highest quality, longest lasting, environmentally friendly options that not only benefit their pocketbooks, but benefit the planet as well.

Consumers adopting environmentally-conscious LED holiday lighting can expect to reduce power consumption 80-90% over traditional incandescent holiday lighting. Speaking on the practical benefits of switching to LED Christmas Lights, a recent October 2008 announcement by the New York State Energy Research and Development Department (NYSERDA) encouraged residents to "Upgrade decorative or holiday lighting with ENERGY STAR qualified Light-Emitting Diode (LED) holiday lighting strands." The department went on to note that "LED holiday lighting strands last up to 11 holiday seasons, rarely burn out and will save you up to $100 per year on your energy bill!"

Commenting on the significance of the ENERGY STAR Christmas Lights partnership, William Hale, President of Christmas Lights Etc. said: "We're proud to partner with ENERGY STAR and to do our small part in encouraging our customers to switch to energy-efficient LED lighting in order to help reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and overall energy consumption. Today more than ever we invite our customers to experience the benefits of lower energy costs by switching to environmentally friendly ENERGY STAR certified LED lighting."

About ENERGY STAR Energy Star is a joint program of the US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy in encouraging Americans to take the Energy Star Pledge to Change a Light/Change the World. ENERGY STAR qualified products and practices meet strict energy-efficiency guidelines established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

About Christmas Lights, Etc. Christmas Lights, Etc. is a nationwide leading online retailer of premium Artificial Christmas Trees, Christmas Lights, Christmas Garland, Christmas Decorations, and Christmas Ornaments. Their products have been featured by the CBS Early Morning Show, Smart Money magazine, Wall Street Journal, and HGTV to name a few. - 32397

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Christmas Lights Add Beauty

By Doug Winston

Christmas lighting schemes add beauty to any home. Even the simplest lights are heartwarming. Christmas lights are essential to community building. Even in areas where neighbors barely speak as they rush off to jobs feel more cheerful when the street is decked out with sparkling Christmas lights.

There was a time during my childhood when, for a while, people tended to shun Christmas lights. Although I was young at the time, I seem to remember that it was related to the energy crisis. All of a sudden it was socially irresponsible to put up Christmas lights. Thankfully that has changed. The older strings of Christmas lights were wildly inefficient when it came to energy consumption.

Christmas lighting has undergone several innovative phases. The most common Christmas lights on the market these days are the small LED lights. With development and experimentation, LED lights can now be produced in mass quantities and that has resulted in increasingly low prices. These light weight strings of lights use only a small fraction of the energy required by the older lights. Therefore LED Christmas lights are cheap to buy and cheap to run.

The most common indoor decorating theme that has been used for years is the single or double strand of string lights that spiral up a staircase railing, intertwined with garland in the color you have chosen for your Christmas lighting theme. Equally as charming is a string of icicle lights affixed to the underside of the staircase railing. It is a little harder to secure this style of lighting, but it looks just as cute.

Another trend that I've been noticing lately is the use of a Christmas lighting centerpiece. The most common one that I have seen is the LED light globe. There are a number of sizes, ranging from small little hanging balls, to huge centerpieces meant to hang sort of like a disco ball. These would make great additions to a backyard garden party if you are lucky enough to live in a warmer climate at Christmas time. Along with the light globes, there are also variations on this, such as large stars, moon shapes etc, again, designed to be centerpieces.

Christmas lighting can be dramatic, whimsical, or subtle. It can be effectively used in mass quantities or sparingly. In all cases these lights are lovely and contribute to a happy joyful atmosphere. With the advent of the low cost energy efficient LED Christmas lights there is no reason not to sparkle this holiday season. - 32397

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