Christmas lights are strands of electric lights that are used as decoration during the Christmas season. Christmas lights can be used indoors, to decorate a Christmas tree or used outdoors to decorate a home, building or landscape. Some places also offer battery operated lights for those who do crafts.

Christmas lights come in a variety of colors, from white to red, green, blue, gold and pink, among others. These lights colors are also offered on green or white wire and brown in some cases. When shopping for lights, a main consideration is what the lights will be used for.

Standard Christmas Lights are better used indoors or for crafts. Some Standard light strings don't have an end connector which is perfect for decorating wine bottles. With these lights you can't connect as many together like you can with more heavy duty lights. Many heavy duty light sets also have supplementary functions, such as flashing and fading. Your Premium or Commercial Christmas Lights have a heavier gauge wire and usually feature a lamp lock mechanism that holds the bulb in place.

LED lights are becoming more and more popular. Aside from the main feature of the amount of energy they DON'T use, you can hook many more LED Lights sets http://www.christmaslightsetc.com/pages/how-much-power.htm together than your average incandescent light.

Battery Operated Lights are also quite popular during Christmas time and even throughout the year. They are used for a number of things like decorating unlit wreaths or centerpieces. Battery Operated Lights are available with regular incandescent bulbs, LED's and LED wide angle lenses.

Edward H. Johnson was the first reported person to use lights on a Christmas tree, creating a specially made light set in 1882 in New York City. At the time, electric lights were expensive and for many years lights were only used indoors. The first outdoor lights were likely used in San Francisco in 1904.Old Christmas Lights: War Years