The 15 Best Outdoor Christmas Lights for Your Most Festive Yuletide Yet

Best LED Outdoor Christmas Lights

These mini lights may be small, but they boast seriously impressive brightness, according to Amazon customers. The strings can also be set to light up in one of eight different modes, including waves, flashing, fading, twinkling and, of course, steady glow. Best of all, this UL-certified set features 115 feet of length, so you can cover a lot of ground.

Best Outdoor Curtain Lights

These warm, white curtain lights feature eight different lighting effects and a built-in memory, so you don’t have to reprogram them according to your preference every evening. While they're not a traditional string light style, the curtain design is surprisingly versatile and creates a lovely waterfall effect whether you hang them on the facade of your home, above a sliding glass door or around the perimeter of a covered porch.

Best Outdoor Christmas Icicle Lights

A built-in memory chip, an automatic timer (six hours on, 18 hours off) and eight different lighting modes are among the bells and whistles that come with these durable outdoor icicle lights. Frost your house with these guys for an instant winter wonderland transformation that will look oh-so pretty.

Best Snowflake Icicle Lights

Can’t decide between traditional white and cheerful multicolored lights? Well, friends, you don’t have to. These charming snowflake-shaped icicle lights, which come with a 10-foot cord, boast three different color modes, as well as eight different lighting modes. Better yet, they last for up to 60,000 hours, according to the company.

Best Strawberry Christmas Lights

The textured, chunky strawberry bulbs on these string lights give off a retro vibe that feels just plain happy. Best of all, the larger C9 size of the bulb ensures a bright and bold glow that won’t get lost in the landscape. There are no fancy features here—just one steady "on" setting—but these fuss-free lights are durable enough to withstand the elements, and they’re fun to look at, too. They're available in multicolor and warm white.

Best Mini LED Outdoor Christmas Lights

These color-changing fairy lights, equipped with multiple lighting modes, are an excellent outdoor option for fans of the mini light look, thanks to their safe LED design and thorough weatherproofing. Bonus: You can connect up to four of these 105-feet strands for maximum coverage and a beautifully bright display.

Best Quick-Clip Christmas Lights

If you want to create a Christmas scheme straight out of the 1970s, the vintage appeal of these warm white string lights will be right up your alley. The C9 strawberry bulbs here are similar to the other strawberry lights on our list, but this set has an added bonus: heavy-duty, spring-loaded clips that help securely attach the lights to your gutter and allow for 180-degree rotation, so you can angle them this way and that.

Best Christmas Net Lights

These vibrant, colorful Christmas lights boast a lattice design, allowing them to function as a net that can be hung between two trees, spread out on the grass for some ground décor, or used to easily decorate fences and bushes. Plus, this set features a memory chip in addition to the eight lighting modes, so it will remember your preferences. Keep in mind that the adapter is not waterproof, so it needs to be covered for safety.

Best Outdoor Snowfall Christmas Lights

If traditional icicle lights don’t make enough of a statement for your taste, these falling rain icicles might be what your Christmas scheme is missing. Every bulb turns on in a quick, one-by-one sequence, resembling a meteor shower or falling snow in the night sky. Hang ‘em up as you would any icicle lights (you can connect five strings together) for a meteor shower effect featuring streaks of bright light that are sure to stop passersby in their tracks.

Best Color-Changing Outdoor Christmas Lights

The cream of the color-changing crop, these mini-lights boast 16 single colors, plus two multicolor options to boot. The 32-key remote control can also be used to adjust both speed and brightness. Yup, there is no shortage of things you can do with these UL-certified fancy string lights. For safety, the power adapter needs to be protected when outdoors, and they even come with an auto-shutoff feature.

Best Solar Outdoor Christmas Lights

Unless an astronomical electric bill is on your wish list this year, you might want to consider a solar-powered Christmas scheme. These eight-mode mini lights have a solar panel so they can soak up the sun even on a snowy day—no batteries and no utility bill blues. Best of all, these guys have an auto on/off feature so your outdoor display will operate like a well-oiled machine, even when you’re out of town.

Best Christmas Rope Lights Outdoor

We like these ones in particular because they are far sleeker than some of their bulky competitors, and they’re dimmable to boot. The best part is how flexible they are, as you can bend them to flatter any outdoor decoration. You can even hook them up to your phone charger, as they're USB powered.

Best Outdoor Snowflake Christmas Lights

Good news for anyone dreaming of a white Christmas: You don’t have to leave it to chance. Deck out your outdoor area with these durable-but-delicate-looking snowflake string lights for a flurry of festive illumination in both twinkle and flash modes that is decidedly more pleasant than an actual snowstorm. Bonus: The bendable copper wire on these ones opens up many decorating possibilities.

Best Vertical Outdoor Christmas Tree Lights

These string lights are designed to look like a Christmas tree, with each strand attached to an illuminated star topper. Hang them on an actual tree in your yard or simply let them cascade from an overhanging ledge (like the roof of a front porch, for example)—either way, the effect of the eight pattern modes, which reportedly stay on for six hours and off for 18, will be dazzling. These lights will also make your life a little easier with a built-in memory chip to save your mode of choice without needing to reset.

Best Outdoor Christmas Globe Lights

Presenting a set of multicolored globe lights that promise to impart a little whimsy to your outdoor display. These solar-powered crystal balls are downright adorable. They can be set to 16 different colors, and can even be operated with a remote that includes a convenient timer function.