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Holiday Lights Get a Glow-Up
Thanks to new technology, today’s options range from programmable bulbs to fully animated projections.
3-minute read
Kaitlin Brito
Home lighting displays have moved beyond the traditional holiday season to spread cheer at Halloween, Valentine’s Day and other times of year. The right outdoor lighting can transform your house into a neighborhood attraction. With the advanced options available today, you can make it seem as if a ghost is scurrying by your door as trick-or-treaters approach. Or you can set your shrubs and trees aglow with seasonal colors in a synchronized pattern.
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Best of all, some systems don’t require you to climb a ladder to install them.
“Shoppers want holiday decor to feel more personal and expressive,” says Monica Reese, director of trend and style at Lowe’s. “But they also want it to be easier to set up and easier to enjoy.”
Thinking about decorating your house in a way that would make Clark Griswold jealous? Here are a few new tricks to keep in mind.
Personalize displays with adaptable bulbs
Light sets used to come in one color or a mishmash of hues that never changed. Today’s smart lights use a newer kind of LED; each bulb can produce a wide variety of colors.
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You can customize their appearance with an app on your smartphone, going from classic white to a multicolor string depending on your mood. Most have additional visual modes such as ever-changing color gradation and chasing effects.
“You can change lights to what you’re feeling in the moment,” says Luca de Castiglione of Twinkly, a smart-lighting brand.
Some companies offer the ability to create your own light patterns. Bulbs can be independently controlled, allowing for one-of-a-kind sequences or displays.
“A lot of these lights double as decor for more than one holiday,” says Aubrey Horowitz, a holiday decor specialist at Home Depot.
If programming your own displays sounds outside your skillset, some apps, such as Twinkly’s, have factory presets and designs uploaded by other users.
In some cases you can synchronize your lights with music.
There are options with music-syncing capabilities (such as Govee or Twinkly’s) that you can use with your smartphone.
Pathway illumination sets a mood
Ground lights add a festive (or, in October, spooky) glow to your yard. Choices include low-profile ground stakes, orbs and luminaries with battery-powered LED candles. Or you can install permanent color strips along the edges of walkways to create dynamic patterns that change with the holidays.
Create an attraction with a projector or mapping
Projector lights are an easy way to illuminate an entire side of a house. A plugged-in device staked in the ground and aimed at the house can shine an array of colors, patterns and characters. It’s quick and simple, but generally only part of an overall look, “often used alongside smart lights, pathway lighting, twinkling trees and other specialty products,” Reese says.
For a more advanced option, there’s projection mapping. With a digital projector and specialized software, you can tell a story on the front of your house. Mapping assigns animation to a specific area, so you can, for example, program a ghoul to appear at a window. The system detects your house’s dimensions, color, texture and other specifications, allowing an entire scene to unfold: Your garage doors appear to open to reveal Santa’s workshop, with presents moving along a conveyor belt to your second floor. Scenes can run on a loop, but many people who opt for this kind of display have scheduled presentation times.
Install a permanent module for year-round fun
Setting up and taking down light displays, no matter how basic, can be a slog. Several light makers offer LED modules that are permanently mounted on the soffits or roofline of your house. They’re essentially invisible during the day, but you can use them for festive lighting at any time of year—showing off your favorite team’s colors on game night, for instance. They can be integrated with smart-home systems, letting you turn them on and off with a voice command.
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