Decorating with Lights for Halloween

This year has gone by so quickly and before we all know it, it will be time for Halloween. It is time to start thinking about how you might decorate for one of the most fun holidays all year. We are proud to offer a selection of different lighting products to fit the needs for Halloween decorating. 

Traditional Mini Lights - These are the most commonly used lights for all occasions. But for Halloween you could get amber and purple to add a little pop of light and color to your decor. You can use them inside or outside. Light up your windows and add black silhouettes of cats and ghosts for a spooky effect. 

LED Lights - LED lights are growing in popularity. These lights would be perfect to use year after year for your Halloween season. These lights come in so many styles and colors. Something for every budget and taste. You could use the LED craft lights in orange or white to light your pumpkins this year. 

Traditional C7 and C9 Lights - These are great for Halloween if you already have stringers for your Christmas lights. All you have to do is trade out the festive Christmas colors for opaque orange and purple. You can really use any combination of colors  to fit your design. These are great for lining your house to show the spooks and ghouls to the door. 

Have fun decorating for Halloween with any of these lighting options. Any of them would be perfect to fit to your spooky holiday decorations.

Decorating with Lights for Easter

Decorating for Easter is fun, but why not take it up one more notch and add some lights into your decor. There are several options, as far as matching the Easter holiday theme. No matter if you like to go more trendy with bright colors or stay traditional with pastels. There is something for every taste.

Opaque C7 and C9 lights are one option. These are similar to traditional Christmas lights but are painted, so when they are lit they have a look of pastel colors and a soft glow. You could try colors like, yellow, pink, purple, orange, and white. Perfect to put outside, lining the yard to look like hidden Easter eggs or in the bushes. You could also use them in your centerpieces on your tables. These are going to be better with a more traditional Easter color scheme. 

Mini lights on white wire are another great choice. These are great for small trees, flower arrangements and centerpieces. You could get them in colors such as pink, yellow, teal and purple on white wire. They will be perfect for your festive Easter decor.Since these lights are little brighter colors they might look better with a more trendy Easter theme. 

Either way you go, both options with look great! Check out our selection of mini lights and opaque bulbs.

--
Hannah

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.