How Much Do Christmas Lights Consume: Our Guide 

String lights and outdoor decorations, twinkling fairy lights, and multicoloured cascades. In this time of energy alarm, discovering how much Christmas lights consume will be a pleasant surprise.

A Christmas without festive lights wouldn’t be a Christmas at all. However, in this moment of uncertainty, where much is said about rising utility bills and environmental sustainability, even a long-standing and cherished tradition like Christmas lights—originally intended to bring warmth, magic, and spirituality into every home—can become a concern. But is it really the case? Let’s find out how much Christmas lights consume and come to terms with ourselves and this evocative and essential custom during the festive season.

The custom of decorating homes, as well as the streets of towns, for Christmas is ancient. It stems from the profound symbolic meaning that light holds in the Christian-Catholic religion (and not only). For Christians, light symbolises Jesus and the hope He brings to the world, the promise of eternal life and salvation of which He is the embodiment. We see this in many devotional forms, from the candles and torches lit in churches before the statues of the Madonna and saints to the Paschal Candle, emblematic of the Resurrection and the triumph of Christ over death and evil.

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While in our country the tradition of illuminations is linked to the popular festivals dedicated to the Saints, which have characterised popular devotion, especially in Southern Italy since ancient times, the custom of decorating and illuminating with torches, candles, and lamps the furniture in homes and the windowsills has always been widespread in Northern European countries. Christmas lights have always been a way to welcome light into one’s home, to celebrate its triumph, and also to share it, projecting it outwards so that everyone can enjoy it. Thus, whether it is garlands of lights to hang on balconies or windows, or lights for the Christmas tree, this desire to let light triumph during the cold winter nights has united us all for centuries. It is said that Martin Luther, the father of Protestantism, was the first to think how wonderful it would be to illuminate Christmas trees with candles, which even in his time adorned the homes of the faithful on Holy Night.

Christmas lights were thus born as a sign of devotion, and it would indeed be a shame to have to give them up for fear of an overly expensive bill. Fear not: just a few small adjustments and a judicious choice of lights and Christmas decorations can allow us to celebrate in peace and without unpleasant surprises!

Let’s start from the assumption that Christmas lights affect the bill much less than we might imagine. We are, of course, talking about LED lights, which have almost completely replaced traditional incandescent Christmas bulbs over the past ten years, allowing savings of between 80% and 90% on consumption.

Therefore, if your concern is how much Christmas lights consume, the first thing to do to save energy during the festive season is to replace, if you haven’t already, your old incandescent bulbs with high-efficiency LED lights.

In our store, you will find Christmas string lights both for indoor and outdoor use, ideal for decorating your home during Christmas and illuminating windows, balconies, and outdoor spaces. You can choose between mains-powered and battery-operated LED string lights, lights with bare LED bulbs, mini LED string lights, neon lights, as well as strings with pine cones and small balls. Not only that: our Christmas lights, whether coloured or white, can also be equipped with a timer and controller. These systems can help us have even greater control over LED consumption, thus saving even more.

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All you need to do is choose the LED Christmas lights that are right for you!

Indoor LED Christmas Lights

Let’s begin with indoor LED lights, essential for creating a festive atmosphere in your home. This does not mean solely in the living room or the common room where you will spend the holiday days with your loved ones. We have previously dedicated an article to the many ways to also decorate the bedroom with Christmas lights, filling it with a warm and soft light, which will warm it during the festive season and lull you into the sweetest dreams.

With that in mind, the first choice you can make if you are concerned about how much Christmas lights consume is to equip yourself with a Christmas tree with integrated LED lights, perhaps the most convenient and modern way to enjoy the full atmosphere of the season without worrying about decorating the tree. You can then use one of our decorative solutions for indoors. You will find all sorts, tailored to your needs, furnishings, and style of your home. You can opt for one or more Christmas light strings with cold white light: this consists of 1000 LEDs set in a cable that is 50 m long, suitable for both indoor and outdoor environments, thanks to the IP44 protection of the transformer and the 4 meters of power cable. Each string is equipped with a timer, fixed light, and light play with a memory controller.

If you prefer a warmer and more traditional atmosphere, you can choose the Christmas lights with a black cable, also composed of 1000 LEDs, but with warm white light. The string is 50 m long, operates via a remote control, and is suitable for both outdoor and indoor use.

If you love multicoloured lights, the right choice for you is the string of lights made up of 2000 multicolour LED lights, formed from different colours, with 8 different light play options available for you to choose, selectable via a modern memory controller.

PVC Flocked Grober Christmas tree by Winter Woodland 150 cm.
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Christmas string lights 1000 LEDs cold white black cable 50 m.
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LED Christmas lights 1000 warm white black wire 50 m
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Multi-colour Christmas lights 1000 outdoor indoor 50 m
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Outdoor LED Christmas Lights

If you want to illuminate your garden, as well as the windowsills, balcony railing, porch, and pots on the terrace, you need to choose suitable outdoor Christmas lights, equipped with the appropriate protections. In addition to the previously mentioned LED string lights, we also offer a wide range of modern and safe decorations, both in terms of electrical safety and limited energy consumption. Some examples? The Christmas Comet made up of 100 warm white LED lights or the presents composed of 120 LEDs (108 fixed light LEDs and 12 flashing) in icy white, in a tube that protects them and makes the decoration suitable for indoor and outdoor use, or even the luminous Christmas Reindeer, depicted standing with its head held high, equipped with 80 fixed warm light LEDs, ideal for decorating both outdoor and indoor spaces.

Comet with 100 LED lights, warm white, full flash.
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Illuminate Christmas Presents indoor outdoor use decoration cold white.
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Acrylic reindeer with 80 LED lights.
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How to Calculate the Consumption of Christmas Lights

It remains to clarify how much Christmas lights consume, even those of the latest generation, like the ones we have proposed. Well, if the decorative lighting you have purchased is compliant, the expected energy consumption must be legally indicated on the adhesive label attached to the power cable, stated in Watts (W). You then need to compare this figure with the average cost of electricity expressed in Kilowatt-hours (kWh), a multiple of Watt-hours (Wh), the unit of measurement that indicates how much a device of 1 Watt consumes when turned on for 1 hour. Each 1 Kilowatt-hour corresponds to 1000 Watt-hours.

So, if a light fixture has an expected energy consumption of 3.6 Watts and remains on for 6 hours a day, and if the average cost of electricity we pay is €0.5/kWh, after 45 days we will have an energy consumption of €0.49. If the expected consumption for a Christmas string light is 17.28 Watts, in the same period and with the same energy cost, we will spend €2.33. To understand the comparison, a normal washing machine cycle lasting 2 hours consumes 1200 Watts, and therefore with an average cost of electricity of €0.5/kWh, it will cost us €36.00!

One last recommendation: whether you decorate your home, your Christmas tree, or your balcony with lights and string lights, in addition to consumption, always remember to pay attention to the safety of Christmas lights. Once you are sure that your lights meet all the safety standards and certifications required, you just need to position them correctly to avoid the wires becoming a hazard, check that the power sockets are functioning and secure, and of course, always remember to unplug all plugs before leaving or going to bed. And this last point is not just a matter of saving.