Before shopping, make a plan for where and how you want to hang your lights, says Lance Allen, Decorative Holiday Merchant at The Home Depot. “Decking the halls looks different for everyone, but I do recommend mapping out a plan for your lights to get the best results Pick a focal point to highlight. Place your brightest lights or a higher concentration of lights on the areas you want to pull the most focus on and build out your plan from there," he says. To find the absolute best Christmas lights for indoors, we spent several weeks researching indoor lighting products and tested each for 28 hours, comparing each light’s brightness, bulb shape and size, length, quality, and features. The Wintergreen Lighting LED Christmas Lights are our best overall pick due to their brightness, color variety, and ability to repel dust and moisture. Based on at-home testing, here are the best indoor Christmas lights to use in your home. For bright, festive indoor lights that will stand the best of time, we recommend the Wintergreen Lighting 5mm LED Christmas Lights. They were the brightest and most vibrant lights out of more than a dozen products we tested. These holiday lights are 24 feet long with 70 bulbs on each strand, and they’re available in a variety of popular color schemes, including amber and cool white, red, multi-colored, and even red and white. Plus, you can connect up to 44 strands end-to-end using just one outlet, allowing you to create bigger and brighter displays. When testing the Wintergreen Lighting Christmas Lights at home, we liked that they had one-piece professional-grade bulbs, which keep moisture and dust out to prevent corroding. The lights are Energy Star-certified, and the brand offers a 3-year seasonal warranty as well. While a tad more expensive than other picks, our testers agreed these were extremely high-quality and seems long-lasting, so you won’t have to replace them as often. One downside is that individual bulbs are not replaceable and some reviewers wished these came in longer strands. Still, the brightness and variety remain unmatched. Price at time of publish: $25 While we appreciated the classic look of these Christmas lights in testing, we noticed that they have a slight strobing effect (caused by a lack of rectifiers). It’s not as noticeable when the lights are spread out and hung on a tree, but it can make your eyes hurt if they’re bunched up closely together, you stare at them for too long, or you’re sensitive to flashing lights. Additionally, these lights weren’t the brightest of the bunch we tested, but they were plenty bright for an indoor Christmas display and looked very pretty on the tree. Each stand is 33 feet long with a total of 100 LED lights. While these aren’t professional-grade lights, they still seemed to be very well made when evaluated during testing. The white Christmas lights have “constant on” technology, meaning you won’t lose the whole strand if a bulb burns out or comes loose. (They do come with replacement bulbs and fuses nonetheless.) You can connect up to 25 strands of these lights end-to-end. Price at time of publish: $18 These Christmas lights are over 23 feet long with 70 bulbs on each strand, and you can connect up to 44 sets end-to-end to decorate even the largest displays. They are a bit more expensive than other options, but we liked that the lights are fully wave rectified, meaning there’s no discernible flicker from the LED bulbs. Price at time of publish: $24 This set of lights has 300 LED bulbs that span 99 feet of its length, and the remaining 6 feet is an extra-long lead—ideal if your outlet isn’t close by. We liked that the wires of these Christmas lights are noticeably thinner than the norm, making them easy to hide in a holiday tree or other decoration, and as an added bonus, there’s even a button on the plug that allows you to cycle through the set’s eight lighting effects. Price at time of publish: $27 These lights are quite short at just 16 feet—our testing notes report that you’d need at least two sets to decorate a Christmas tree, maybe even three—and there are 60 LED bulbs on each strand. They come in both multi-colored and white options, and you can connect up to 45 strands of them together to complete your holiday display. Price at time of publish: $14 These lights come in a wide range of colors, and each strand is over 23 feet long with 70 bulbs spaced 4 inches apart. During our tests, we found that the colors aren’t as vibrant as other Christmas lights, but they still stand out on a tree thanks to their unique shape. You can connect up to 45 strands of these lights together, but the one downside is that there’s virtually no lead wire, meaning the bulbs start immediately after the plug. Price at time of publish: $26 The Twinkly Lights offer 65.5 feet of wire and 250 LED bulbs—enough to cover a large tree—but we thought it was strange that the string lights are actually split into two separate strands, both of which are connected to the main control unit. Our testing notes report that this unconventional design makes it somewhat complicated to set the lights up, but thankfully, both strands have a generous lead wire to get them where they need to go. The lights have the brand’s AWW bulbs, which appear to be a smaller version of 5mm conical bulbs, and they do get a little warm to the touch if left on for long periods, so just make sure to handle them with care. Price at time of publish: $140 These Christmas lights are 43 feet long in total, but it’s important to note that only 33 feet of the wire are lit—there’s a generous lead wire that’s 10 feet long (overly generous). To change the lighting effect, you simply press a button on the plug but keep in mind that you’re not able to connect multiple strands. Price at time of publish: $15 Once each group was set up, our tester compared the different lights, picking out which ones were the brightest and most colorful in each group. She left them plugged in for several hours during the day to see if they got warm to the touch at all. Next, she strung the lights up on an artificial Christmas tree, evaluating each product’s brightness and overall appearance both during the day and at night. Once she selected the top products from each group, she then compared the “winners” to each other to further narrow down her favorites.
What to Look for in Indoor Christmas Lights
Bulb Type
All the experts we talked to recommended LED Christmas lights, which offer several benefits over incandescent options. “Incandescent lights are the traditional Christmas lights that we grew up with—they produce visible light by heating a wire filament until it glows," explains Lance Allen, Decorative Holiday Merchant at The Home Depot, “and while they are initially more wallet-friendly than LED lights, they do use up to 80% more energy.” On the other hand, Allen says that LED bulbs last 20x longer than traditional lights and use up to 80% less energy. “They also come in a wider variety of colors than traditional incandescent bulbs.” He explains that LED lights stay cool to the touch, which is safer when you’re stringing them on a live tree.
Bulb Shape
There are several bulb shapes commonly used for Christmas lights, with T5 mini lights being the most popular. This classic, elongated shape offers a nostalgic vibe for many people, as it’s designed to resemble traditional incandescent bulbs and offers a mid-level brightness that’s ideal for indoor displays. If you want your decorations to really pop, 5mm conical lights are a similar size but brighter than T5 bulbs, as their concave tips help to magnify the light. For a bolder display, you can also opt for larger specialty bulbs, including C6 or C7 bulbs, which have a teardrop shape.
Rectifiers
One common complaint about LED Christmas lights is that they flicker ever so slightly, often creating a subtle strobing effect that can bother your eyes. This happens because 60Hz LED lights technically cycle on and off 60 times per second. If the strobing bothers you, you may want to opt for string lights with full-wave rectifiers, which speed up the flickering so it isn’t visible to the eye.
Special Effects
There are plenty of basic, no-frills Christmas lights available today, but if you want to create a more complex display, you may prefer a set of lights with special features. Common features include various light effects, such as twinkling, built-in timers, color-changing abilities, or even smart capabilities, like remote operation from your phone.
Why Trust The Spruce?
This article was written by Camryn Rabideau, a freelance writer and product tester who has been contributing to The Spruce since 2017. While researching what makes the best indoor Christmas lights, she spoke with several experts, including Lance Allen, Decorative Holiday Merchant at The Home Depot. Using their guidance, she personally tested 15 different sets of Christmas lights, evaluating each on its quality, brightness, length, and ease of use, and she took all of these factors into account as she made her final selections.
