Holiday Lights: Green, Creative Ways to Use and Reuse

Holiday lights are one of my favorite parts of Christmas. We always rocked our children to sleep by the light of the Christmas tree. I grieve every season when taking the lights down. It occurred to me several years ago that I needn't put myself through the trauma. I decided to keep the holiday lights up year round, but in new ways. Holiday lighting is wonderfully versatile! There are dozens of unique and fun ways to use and reuse holiday lighting year round. Holiday lights are a green use of electricity. Each tiny light is only .5 watts. LED holiday lights burn even less.

Here is how we use them:

* Our children have holiday lights strung around the ceiling in their rooms. When our oldest daughter decided to do a Lord of the Rings theme in her room, she strung lavender holiday lights around her ceiling. Holiday lights give a soft warm glow. Very Middle Earth!

* Our older son uses string of multicolored holiday lights in his room. His room theme is music and guitar. He has hung several of my old LP albums and album covers on the walls. He has wound some of the lights into shapes, like a guitar. He hangs holiday lights on his amplifier and guitar stand.

* When our children were younger, holiday lights in their rooms in place of night lights. The light is low for sleeping and yet gives off enough light to ward off night frights.

* Light banisters or stairways with holiday lights. Darker holiday lights like blue or green give a nice low light. A lit stairway is safer at night time.

* Holiday lights can be used in a school classroom. Holiday lights decorate the room. Teachers sometimes want to cut the glare of florescent lights. Holiday lights provide a nice ambiance. Students really seem to read and write better when they work in soft lighting.

* Decorate any room in the house with holiday lights. String the lights in larger house plants. If you have a potted tree in your home, string holiday lights in the branches.

* Outline yard items with holiday lights. Use holiday lights around the patio. The lights give off lovely warm lighting that is perfect for evening gatherings.

* Holiday lights make perfect decorations for weddings and wedding receptions. Holiday lights come in all colors. Wind holiday lights around posts, pillars and anywhere in your ceremony or reception hall that you'd like to accent.

* Use holiday lights in theater productions. We lit our production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with strings of holiday lights. These lights work great, especially in children's theater. These kinds of lights are much safer and easier for young thespians to handle.

* Lastly, and this one's my favorite, my husband and I used holiday lights outdoors for our daughter's sweet 16 party. We drove tall, thin stakes along both sides of the driveway. We strung strings of holiday lights around the stakes. We used this for the dance floor! The kids loved our improvised disco hall!