How many Christmas lights do I need for my house?
The number of lights you need comes down to one thing: how many feet you want to cover. Measure that first, and the shopping gets easy.
Start with the roofline
Walk the front of your house and add up every roof edge and gutter that faces the street, including the slanted edges of any gable. A house that is 40 feet wide often has 45 to 60 feet of front roofline once the gables are counted. Most roofline light strings are sold in 25 foot lengths, so divide your total by 25 and round up.
Then the windows and the door
The outline of an average window is about 12 to 16 feet. Going up one side of a front door, across the top and down the other side is about 17 feet. Add up the ones you want to outline and divide by 25 again.
Bushes and trees
Net lights are the easy answer for bushes: one 4 by 6 foot net covers one medium bush. For a tree trunk, plan on two or three 25 foot strings of mini lights to wrap the trunk and the first big branches.
Do not forget the small things
For every 100 feet of lights, plan on about 100 clips, one outdoor timer and one or two outdoor extension cords. Check the box for how many strings can be connected end to end, and never go past that number.
Or let your photo do the counting
Upload a photo of your house and we estimate the roofline, count the windows and bushes, and hand you a list with quantities at three budgets.