Since it is Thanksgiving week and our brains are kind of busy thinking about holiday plans, let’s have some fun today and all throw in our two cents on this highly sensitive, and controversial topic, shall we?
I threw this question out last year and it was fun to hear everyone’s answers and their reasons. I was an “all white lights girl” at Christmas for our entire married life because I loved the look at Disneyland, but last year I added in some colored lights to our garland, including some soft ambers and greens and I LOVED the freshness of it. We still have tons of white lights though so I am undecided which way I will go this year. I might do a mixture again.
I’m wondering what color of lights YOU are all going with this year? I know, it is kind of trivial, but I know you all have an opinion on what you like so go ahead and let’s discuss!
Ready, set GO.
Christmas Tree inspiration photo: BHG
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These days, white is the standard for me. I never do traditional red and green ornaments of any kind, including lights. When my kids were little, I usually did multi-colored everything, which is sweet and which I love. Since they have grown, I have done many different solid color schemes too, just as long as they are not too traditonal. I love the looks of everyone else’s decorations though, no matter what colors they choose!
Sheila
.-= Sheila´s last blog ..Taken in by those Gorgeous Baby Blues! =-.
I love both depending on the look you are going for. My whole life, we have always used both! I’ve been really into the look of turquoise with white and silver, so if I decorated a tree that way, I would stick with white, but it changes yearly for me.
.-= Sarah @ Dream In Domestic´s last blog ..Losing My Sanity to Four Cheap Chairs =-.
I have always loved white lights! I think they look so magical, esp with snow. I try and mix just one color into the lights for an accent, for example, on the tree I used red and white lights with red, white, gold and green ornaments only.
I am a white or blue light kind of girl. I like everything to look mellow, all of the crazy cacophony of colors makes my head hurt.
.-= Gwen@MurphyGraceHome´s last blog ..Let me Introduce You to My Frugal Family and her Giveaway! =-.
Here in South Africa Christmas time comes around in the heat of Summer. I think that if by some miracle we ever had a “white Christmas” … then I would definitely go all white … guess I will have to spend a Christmas in the US for that little miracle
Every year, I go full colour and tree overloaded with happy decorations. My kiddies are little and it reminds me of my childhood. I guess I will finally go “classy” when the girls are a little older 
Until then … loud, colourful and happy it is!!!
i grew up with vintage, big, multi-colored bulbs, and so that’s what we use. it reminds me of growing up, decorating the tree with strung popcorn and hearing old classic christmas music in the background.
.-= marge´s last blog ..court and campout =-.
Normally I would say color! The blinking color lights is what i grew up with, but this year, I am going all white!! Going to put a spin on my traditions and create a simple tree with lots of memories!!
.-= Bethany´s last blog ..dream rooms =-.
I love the beauty of the multi-colored lights with pink instead of red. I have tried white, but keep coming back to colors.
I’m all about the colored lights on the tree. I love the look of a “themed” tree with only a few colors, but I have too many ornaments I love to do such a thing. With all the many different ornaments I have, colored lights make sense (plus, it’s what I grew up with).
Now, for outside, it’s a different story. White only there!!
I’m a white lights kind of girl but my husband, not so much. But since I decorate the tree and he runs and hides, my preferences seem to win out every year! And I grew up putting such a colorful assortment of ornaments, every color, shape and style, on the tree I felt the white lights kept it from looking too busy.
BUT this year we’re putting colored lights on our deck (in fact, they’re already up!) and I like the idea of mixing white and colored – that might make it palatable for me – so I might try that this year!
Thanks for the idea!
.-= Krys´s last blog ..I apologize in advance. =-.
Indoors, I have colored lights on our tree because they are old ones and I don’t see the point of buying new until these die. Outdoors, our garlands have only white lights. Since our house is a distance from the road, I think they look much cleaner and classier peeking through the snow. You can see the colored ones on the tree through the front window and it offers just a “splash of color”. LOL
I love colored lights since that is what we grew up having! But I bought (on clearance in January) a pre-lit tree with white lights that will be our first full-size tree as a family (married 7 1/2 years, 3 kids under 5). I have strings of white and colored lights I may add or use for garland. Haven’t decided, but want to dig it all out soon! Can’t wait! (except I started stripping wallpaper in my girls’ room yesterday so I’m kind of in the middle of that!
.-= Abbie´s last blog ..Blue for my bouncing baby boy. =-.
I use all white lights. I feel they are classic and classy. Go with every type of decor. I just love them. If I used colored lights my kids (all grown) would flip out! As I type this my darling son-in-law is outside hanging lights on the house. Gotta love a good son-in-law!
.-= Colleen´s last blog ..Decorating for Christmas =-.
Both!!!
I have 2 white light trees but my foyer tree has the chubby c9 colored lights of my childhood…love them both, can’t choose just one!
Robin
All Things Heart and Home
.-= Robin All Things Heart and Home´s last blog ..A Holiday Craft AND a Recipe…hey it’s Thanksgiving Week! =-.
I have only ever had white lites – growing up and as an adult. We always have red ornaments too. I like the look of other trees, but can’t imagine my own tree having anything else though.
.-= Sandy´s last blog ..Holiday Schedule and Free Shipping! =-.
My father always hung colored lights on our house and everyone else had these pure white ones…I vowed to use only white to never stand out. Now I look at colored lights and see the fun of them. I hang white because my husband and kids picked them out, but will not rule out colored in the future!
My tree is artificial (I know…but I don’t miss the real thing!) and is pre-lit! White of course. I have a lot of ornaments and feel the colored competes with them. I like the simplicity of white on the tree to show off your precious memories/ornaments!
.-= Gail´s last blog ..Fresh Thoughts and Ideas – Life’s More Fun When You Are Organized =-.
The tree we have is pre lit, and it was on sale. They only had the colored lights. I would prefer white lights, but hey, a bargain is a bargain!!
I go colored every year. If I had a secondary tree, I would do it white. Growing up we had the big colored bulbs that blinked randomly when they got hot. I don’t think they make them anymore. The trick to lights is to use lots of them. I put small colored bulbs on the interior of the tree and then larger bulbs towards the outside. It takes a little more time, but I really like the effect.
Both is the way we go. We have 5 trees in our house. On four of them are white lights. We have the main tree in the living room with white lights and red and gold ornaments, a tree in the kitchen with white lights and gingerbread men, and pink trees with white lights in both of my girls rooms. The tree in the dining room has colored lights and the whimsical ornaments and the ornaments I have gotten for my children every year on it. I love having both and would have a tree in every room if my husband would let me.
white lights. for sure. i love them.
We do two trees–one with colored lights and all the “kid” ornaments. Then, there’s “mom’s tree” with white lights and pretty coordinating ornaments (mostly copper-colored and apple-green). This was a compromise we came to after I was running out of room at the back of the tree to hide all the Dora, Bob the Builder, and various Disney Character ornaments. The kids get to decorate their tree however they want, and they love it!
I use white on our living room tree. We used to use multicoloured, but I decided I wanted our tree to look tailored and traditional, rather than the Santa-Threw-Up-On-Our-Tree look.
We are building a new house in the next year. And our kids will be sharing big rooms, so I’m hoping to decorate them for Christmas as well. I’ll use multi-coloured lights on the tree in our boys room, and pink ones on the white tree (I haven’t got yet) in our girls room. You know… when it actually happens
.-= Jen´s last blog ..Home is Heaven =-.
I use alot of white lights but since I put up alot of trees I try to do one or two with colored lights. I know the kids all like colored and I do think they make Christmas special so I feel like I want to make it special for them too. I love Christmas and do go overboard!
I think white lights are beautiful, but I put colored lights on the tree – that’s what I grew up with, and I think it just looks more homey. I put white lights and garland around the front doors, and candles in the window to add a little polish.
.-= kate´s last blog ..Brownie Thins =-.
Wow! So many comments! I actually put BOTH on my tree. We have the multi-colored mini lights, and then the white light strands twinkle.
.-= Heidi´s last blog ..Brock’s Cookies =-.
Our old farmhouse is under renovation and I can’t imagine trying to decorate inside the house this year (somehow we’ll pull it off)! I would rather focus on the outside and decorate a huge holly tree at the entrance of our property with big colored lights. We would have to bring in a cherry picker to reach the upper branches, but it would be so festive!!
I think it’s fun to change them every few years. I got tired of the all white look and switched to the little colored lights. I think the colored lights are actually the classic old fashioned look of my childhood before they had the white lights. (I’m 50) I’d love to do something totally different this year, I’ll have to see what is out there!
.-= Gayle´s last blog ..Happy Thanksgiving! =-.
There are over 125 comments, but I have to throw my two cents in, too. We have done white lights all our married lives (this will be our 14th Christmas), and that’s not changing any time soon, even though Kiddo would much rather have colored lights. Sorry, my sweet son, Momma wins on this one!
.-= Heathahlee´s last blog ..My 15 minutes… =-.
White, all the way. BUT different sizes and shapes of white. Tiny bulb, large bulb, globe… you get the picture.
.-= Lei´s last blog ..Craft Partay! =-.
White!!
I grew up in the 50s and 60s and had the huge colored lights as a child…then my mother had to have the silver tree with all blue balls and a light that revolved the primary colors shining on the tree. Oh, so retro!
The hubs and I have been married for 37 years and it has always been white for us.
Our children use the white ones on their trees as well.
.-= Dawn´s last blog ..(winners!) =-.
White lights, only! Just wondering, did I miss the announcement of the all day giveaway winners? Your posts come to my Reader, so I didn’t think I could miss it…just checking!
I used to be a white light only girl (like I’m a white only candle girl) until I saw this house…it had a mixture of white, red and green lights, wrapped around garlands and hung on every window of their house. Completely gorgeous and I totally stole the idea once we moved to a different neighborhood.
Years later…I found out that the original red/green/white light house belongs to my son’s preschool teacher!
She was really touched that I stole her Christmas decor and even drove over to where we live now so she could see it!
.-= living with lindsay´s last blog ..DIY Faux Boxwood Letter Wreaths =-.
i am a blue lights kind of girl…but i also love the old fashioned bubble candle lights that a red and green…
.-= Cre8Tiva/Rebecca E. Parsons´s last blog ..Christmas Reflections and Traditions… =-.
Colored or white lights at Christmas? I vote for colored, twinkly, unevenly hung on the tree or bushes! Why? Even though I LOVE to decorate and LOVE the Inspired Room (pure eye candy), in my home at Christmas, there was a terrible loneliness. My mother was a troubled woman and each year she hired decorators to come in and “do” the tree. Some were all white lights and ornaments. Some had a gingerbread theme with red lights. One was pink flocked! But the one tree that was “ours,” the kids’, was the aluminum one with the rotating colored spotlight. My brother and I decorated it with a vengeance, cramming as many balls as we could as high as we could reach. We played sword fights with the branches as we assembled it and memorized Christmas songs from a Ray Coniff album. So… now, in my home, we let the children choose the lights. Every year, it’s colored with twinkles. And each year, more and more balls have moved up from the lower half of the tree to the top where Gabriel blows on his horn. Truly, God is with us. Merry Christmas!
My family has always been a colored lights family, and I continue that on my tree. I think white lights are classy and pretty…but I find colored lights to be so festive and fun. My tree growing up was filled with our childhood ornaments..and now even with out children my tree is very eclectic! So I find colored to be more in the spirit of my crazy fun tree!
.-= Jen @ After The Alter´s last blog ..Saw New Moon! LOVED It! =-.
Late to the party but another vote for the white. They look so magical, like a starry walk in the woods in the moonlight. Besides, I do the decorating so I get to choose.
We have twinkly white lights. I would be just as happy with colored I think though
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.-= Fifth Street Mama´s last blog ..‘Tis The Season Thursday *Giveaway* =-.
The comments are interesting. So many people here are calling white lights “traditional.” To me, color lights seem traditional, and white lights seem modern! As I consider myself traditional, I prefer color lights! Go figure. Absolutely no blinking lights, though. That’s too much.
One year my hubby came home with several boxes of lights he got on deep clearance. DEEP clearance. I was happy he saved so much money until we plugged them in, and they were yellow! Not white, not multi color, but yellow. He insisted on using them. I let him line the inside of windows with them for a couple years. Ugh. I was so happy when they finally stopped working!
I like to switch it up. I grew up with a red balls and multicolored lights on the family tree. My first single gal tree was colored lights (a hand me down) but I wanted a single color. When my husband and I married we did all purple lights. When we bought our condo, we switched to white on the tree and colored lights outside. We save the purple ones to use outside for Halloween.
.-= Condo Blues´s last blog ..Recycled Buttons? Oh Yes Please! =-.