10 holiday lighting mistakes, outside and in (and how to fix them)

Most holiday lighting goes wrong in small ways. Nobody looks at a house and thinks "those are the wrong whites," but they feel it. The good news is that every one of these mistakes has an easy fix, and most of them cost nothing but a little rearranging.

Here are the ten we see most, five outside and five in, with what to do instead.

Outside

1. Mixing whites

Cool white on the gutters, warm white on the porch, and something in between on the bushes. Each strand looks fine alone. Together, the house looks like it was lit in three different years, which it probably was.

The fix: Pick one white and stick with it. Warm white (around 2700K) looks inviting and works with almost any house. If you have older strands in a different white, move them all to one area, like the backyard, rather than mixing them on the front.

2. Lighting a trunk and stopping

A tree trunk wrapped in lights, with a dark canopy above it, looks like the job got interrupted. It also draws the eye straight to the least interesting part of the tree.

The fix: Wrap the trunk, then keep going up into the main branches, or skip the trunk and light the canopy. If the tree is too tall to reach, a couple of well-placed spotlights aimed up into the branches look better than a lit trunk alone.

3. Draping strands over shrubs

Throwing a strand over a bush leaves bright clumps in some places and dark holes in others. It never quite looks even, no matter how long you fuss with it.

The fix: Use net lights. They're made for exactly this: lay the net over the shrub and the bulbs land evenly spaced. For round or tall shrubs, wrap net lights around them like a blanket and tuck the edges underneath.

4. No focal point

Lights on every edge of the house, every bush and every tree, all at the same brightness. Your eye doesn't know where to land, so the whole thing reads as busy.

The fix: Choose one thing to make the star. Usually that's the front door: a lit wreath, a garland around the frame, two lit urns or small trees on either side. Light the rest more quietly so it supports the door instead of competing with it.

5. Everything at one height, nothing repeated

All the lights sit at ground level, or all of them line the roof. Or every element is different: a lit deer here, an inflatable there, a star on the garage.

The fix: Light at three heights (low on the walk or shrubs, middle at the door and windows, high at the roofline or tree canopy) and repeat something. Matching wreaths in each front window, or the same lit garland on the porch rail and the door, makes the house look planned.

A quick word on safety outside

Use only lights and extension cords rated for outdoor use, and plug them into a GFCI outlet. Never run indoor cords outside, and don't daisy-chain strand after strand. Check the box for how many can be connected end to end. Before anything goes up, look over each strand for frayed wires, cracked sockets or damaged plugs and throw out any that have them. Put the outside lights on a timer so they're off overnight, which saves power and means nobody has to remember.

Inside

6. Leaving the overhead light on

The tree is lit, the garland is lit, and the ceiling light is blazing over all of it. The holiday lights disappear, and the room looks like a waiting room with decorations.

The fix: Turn the overhead off when the holiday lights are on. Use lamps on warm bulbs to fill in, and let the tree be the brightest thing in the room.

7. Lighting only the outside of the tree

Strands wound around the outer tips of the branches light the surface, but the tree looks flat and you can see the dark middle through the gaps.

The fix: Work the lights in and out. Start at the trunk, run the strand out along a branch and back in, then move to the next one. A good rule of thumb is about 100 lights per foot of tree, so a six-foot tree wants around 600. It feels like a lot until you see it glowing from the inside.

8. Mismatched whites

The same mistake as outside, but it's even more noticeable up close: a cool white tree next to warm lamps, or two strands on the same tree that don't match.

The fix: Use warm white throughout and match the tree to your lamp bulbs. If your lamps are 2700K, buy 2700K strands. Keep spares from the same box so a replacement strand matches next year.

9. Banisters wrapped like candy canes

A strand wound in a tight spiral down the handrail, often with a garland wound the opposite way. It's busy, it gets in the way of your hand, and the stripes never come out even.

The fix: Lay a full garland along the top of the banister and run the lights through the garland, not around the rail. Secure it with clear zip ties at each spindle or every foot or so, trimmed short. The lights glow from inside the greenery and the rail stays usable.

10. Forgetting the bedroom

Every room downstairs is lit for the season, and the bedroom is exactly as it was in October. It's the last room you see each night and the one where the two of you actually spend the evening.

The fix: Bring a little of it upstairs. Warm fairy lights along the headboard, a small lit tree or a vase of lit branches on the dresser, and flameless candles by the bed are enough. Our holiday bedroom lighting guide walks through the whole room.

The short version

One white, warm, everywhere. A focal point outside and lights at more than one height. Trees lit from the inside, overheads off, banisters lit through garland. And don't skip the bedroom. For the rest of the room, the Lighting Planner can help you pick the right bulbs for each lamp.