Use your Christmas Lights all year
Christmas lights are a bear to put away (as we mentioned before), but instead of simply stowing them away, why not get some more use out of them? Christmas lights can be repurposed for other uses - accent lighting, crafts, school projects and much more. The best part of reusing them is that you don’t have to deal with putting them away.
The Patio Party
We here at Christmas Central are always up for a good party, and with warm spring and summer weather on the horizon, the patio is where it’s at. Our favorite way to light up the patio? Well, other than tiki torches and lanterns, we’ve found Christmas lights are the best for mood lighting on our patio. Forget a bright, harsh spotlight; just string lights along the railing of your deck or patio for subtle ambient lighting perfect for an evening party.
Got colored Christmas lights but at a loss for making them work out of season? Try this patio light project, courtesy HGTV, using water bottles to jazz up the look. It looks like a pretty simple project, and one that can add a unique look to your patio.
More than just a patio
The Home Improvements Depot has a list of other alternative uses for Christmas lights: Try using them as under-counter lighting, the tried-and-true dorm room decoration route, or (my personal favorite) television backlighting.
Got a bar? Try a project similar to this liquor bottle lamp set up, but instead of an LED touch lamp, try stuffing a bundle of Christmas lights in the bottle - set those bottles up behind your at-home bar and you’ve got a sweet set-up for entertaining.
Another cool DIY decoration: grab a Mason jar (or a mayonnaise, pickle or peanut butter jar, empty of course) and spiral a strand of lights along the outside of the jar. Then fill the empty space with glass beads, marbles or even potpourri. Cap it off, plug it in, and you’ve got a cute little kitchen decoration. With the potpourri, the warmth of the Christmas lights even help spread fragrance.
Have any other ideas? Leave us some comments!
(Photo courtesy the StateHornet.com)
April 27th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Hey, thanks for the mention! Love the idea of putting lights in a jar! I’m always looking for creative lighting ideas and that’s a darn neat one… If I give it a try I’ll post pics and be sure to let everyone know where I got the idea from
-Tom
August 8th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
[…] We’ve talked about this before, but we’ll definitely say it again: patio lights make a patio. Whether they’re tiki torches, paper lights, re-purposed Christmas lights or some crazy novelty lights, the soft, warm glow of patio lights create a great mood for summer nights. And it’s an inexpensive way to give your patio a brand new look. […]