Christmas Lights Sale!

Save 10% of all order $40 or up until January 1st, 2013. Use Coupon code SALE2012 during checkout to stock up on great products for the coming year so you don't have rush last minute next year! This coupon is good for all orders over $40.

Visit www.ChristmasLightsShop.com today and save on all your Christmas lights and other lighting products.

C7 & C9 Christmas Light Bulb Information

C7 and C9 bulbs are some of the most iconic and classic christmas light bulbs ever. These two tear drop shaped lamps have adorned houses all over the world and remain a staple to this day. This blog will discuss the differences between these two bulbs and hopefully answer any questions you may have.

 C7 Bulbs are the smaller of the two styles of these bulbs, the image on the right shows that this candelabra base bulb is approx. 1 1/2" Tall and 7/8" wide.  A C7 bulb goes into a Candelabra base, we often tell people they are the same size as a night light bulb because it's the same base size. Normally these lamps are 5 watts but some are found in a 7 watt style.

C9 are the large of these two bulbs, with a bulb size that's approx. 2" tall and 1 1/8" wide these bulbs are perfect for outlining roofs and lighting larger Christmas trees. C9 bulbs go into a Intermediate base and are most commonly found in a 7 watt variety, but they are sometimes available in a 10 watt style.

Both C9 and C7 bulbs are available in 3 styles, Transparent Steady burn, Twinkle, and Painted (Opaque). Steady Burn bulbs are most commonly Transparent colors and don't twinkle at all, Twinkle are Transparent as well and have a thermocouple that heats up and causes the bulb to randomly Flash, and Painted bulbs have an opaque painted finish that gives off a classic soft glow that is unmistakable "Christmas"

The most important thing to know about any incandescent lights when doing a decorating job is the power restriction of the wire. Wire for Christmas lights strings is usually 18 gauge, and depending on the insulation rating you can get different amounts of mileage out of the wire itself. The two types of insulation ratings are SPT-1 which is 7 Amps, and SPT-2 which is 10 Amps. Most of the common light strings you find will fall into the SPT-1 category. Below is a simple math equation we use to calculate how many amps your number of lights is pulling, you should never exceed the amount of amps the wire can handle for a continuous run.

(Bulb Wattage) x (Number of Bulbs) = Total Wattage
 (Total Wattage) ÷ 110 (Volts) = Amps 
Example: 
5 Bulb Wattage x 100 Bulbs = 500 Watts
 500 Watts ÷ 110 Volts = 4.55 Amps

We hope that this short blog helps give you some insight into C7 and C9 bulbs and how to calculate the power those light strings will use.  

Click Here to check out our Christmas light bulbs, and Click Here to check our Christmas Light Strings.

Craft Lights for Glass blocks & Wine Bottles.

Lighting Glass blocks and wine bottles with small Christmas light strings has exploded in popularity over the past few years and ChristmasLightsShop.com has a wide selection of Craft light strings. We carry 10, 15, 20, and 35 count light strings so you can light up any size project.  All of our craft lights feature only a single plug and end with a bulb so it's easy to put them into your project without needing a large hole or having to double light strings over themselves.

Craft Christmas light strings are available in either Green or White Wire and colors can vary depending on the bulb count. The most common colors for all mini lights are Clear, Amber, Blue, Green, Red, Yellow, Teal, Pink, Purple, and Multi color. Most of these options are available on our 20 and 35 count craft light strings, with our 10 and 15 count having less variety.

Like most modern mini lights if a light burns out the rest stay lit, and our strings are made to the highest standard while still remaining affordable.

Visit our Craft lights section today.

Christmas Lights Shop Sale!

Get 5% off any online order over $40 on Christmas Lights Shop!
Use coupon code SAVE5 during checkout!

Let Christmas Lights Shop be your choice for great Christmas lights and holiday lighting products!

How to Repair Mini Christmas lights.

Mini Christmas lights, are a classic christmas light bulb and can be a classic pain in the neck when sections or strings go out. Older mini light strings and bulbs are not shunted so if a bulb burns out the electrical connection ceases at that bulb. Modern bulbs are usually shunted, a shunt is a small piece of wire that will keep electricity flowing if the filament burns out.

If you sets have shunted bulbs you can usually fix the light string quickly and easily. Christmas mini light bulbs can shift and get jarred during shipment and even when they are being handled, it's just the nature of the beast. If you have a section of lights that fail it's pretty common for that section to have a bulb that is loose or twisted and it's causing the section to have a broken electrical connection.


We receive many lights back because of this very minor issue, so before you start searching for return info, follow these simple steps:

• Layout your string flat, completely stretched out and plug it up
• On the section that isn't lighting, gently push each bulb into the socket
• If that doesn't light the string by finding the culprit bulb, gently twist each unlit bulb side to side, like turning a doorknob. Do this step without much pressure, if a bulb is twisted it will not be far from where it needs to be to light. 
• Thats it! If your set doesn't light from these steps you may have a connection problem in a socket which isn't an easy fix. 

If you have access to any of the various christmas light testers use these before you roll the set back up, these testers test for continuity. They make sure the electricity if flowing from plug to plug and you can use them to find where that connection stops then test that plug. 

If you're looking for all new Mini lights! Check out Christmas lights shop selection of Mini christmas lights!

LED Christmas lights, hype or the real deal?

We have a wide (and growing) selection of LED Christmas lights at Christmas Lights Shop.com and you may think, what's the big deal with Christmas LED lights? Are they worth it? Is the energy savings really that significant? Is that the ONLY advantage? And you'd be right in wondering what the big deal is.

LED's are a small diode that emit light, they emit rich vibrant colors and unlike a traditional colored bulb the color isn't dependent on the dye on the outside of the bulb itself. They are highly efficient and and use very little power. A small mini light bulb on a light string pulls .41 watts per bulb, whereas an LED equivalent is .069 watts! A incandescent mini light bulb uses 6 times the power per bulb that an LED bulb uses. The larger screw in type bulbs the difference is really helpful for larger decorating jobs, an incandescent C7 bulb uses approx 5 watts per bulb, and an screw in LED C7 bulb uses .96 watts, that's a difference of 6 time as well.

Lighting your home with LED Christmas lights allow you string many more lights end to end. Most incandescent mini lights allow you to string 3-5 sets end to end normally, with an LED M5 or Wide Angle strings you can plug up to 30 sets end to end! With C7 bulbs you can run 150 bulbs continuously normally, if you switch to LED C7 bulbs you can run 770 bulbs continuously.  So as you can see it's a big difference running LED Christmas light strings versus Incandescent Christmas light strings, not only from a power savings standpoint but from the ability to really extend the amount of lights you can run continuous.

Visit ChristmasLightsShop's LED Christmas Light page to check out all the great sets we offer.

Christmas lights shop.com now live

Christmas lights shop.com is now officially up and running. We are slowly but surely getting all of our LED Christmas lights and clips added but all of our Mini lights, C7 / C9 bulbs, Light line and strings, and electrical supplies are up and available for purchase.

We carry the highest grade Christmas lights and hope to become you're go to holiday lighting store!

So visit www.christmaslightsshop.com today and check out our great selection of products!