15 Unique Outdoor Christmas Light Ideas for Your House & Gates

Don’t you just love Christmas lights? We wait each fall to see which neighbors near me will turn on their lights first. We’ll drive around neighborhoods and go to drive-through light displays to get even more outdoor Christmas light ideas to use in our own yard.

I hope the unique outdoor Christmas light ideas listed below will bring joy to you, your family, your neighbors, and anyone else that drives by your house.

Today we’re sharing the following:

The Christmas Lights We’re Using this Year
Types of Christmas Lights
Where to Put Outdoor Christmas Lights
How to Put Up Christmas Lights
Our Outdoor Christmas Light Display on the Farm
Christmas Lights on Amazon
More Christmas Decorating Ideas

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Christmas Lights Used in Our 2022 Home Tour

Here’s a list of lights we’re using this year:

Warm White String Lights, 328 ft
Colorful String Lights, 328 ft.
Icicle String Lights, 32.8 ft. – The ones I have are sold out but HERE are some similar ones.
Christmas Wreath, prelit

Types of Christmas Lights

It’s good to get an idea of the types of Christmas lights that are available before you plan your outdoor Christmas light display.

Here’s a list of the types of Christmas lights that we’ve used.

string lights
net lights
icicle lights
rope lights
LED lights

Where to Put Outdoor Christmas Lights

After you see what kind of lights are available you can start planning where to put them. Here are a few ideas

on the front door wreath
outlining the house and roof
outlining doors and windows
around the porch railing
wind around pillars and/or posts
down the walkway and/or driveway
around the fenceline
on evergreen trees in the yard
wrap deciduous trees in the yard
wrap around upside-down tomato cages to make mini trees
on barns and other outbuildings
on or over a gate (see our gate below)
cover short bushes or hedges with net lights
inside window boxes and/or planters
stick a string of lights inside a lantern

How to Put Up Christmas Lights

There are a few other details to think about before you start putting up your lights.

Measure your windows, roofline, fence, etc… wherever you want to hang lights. Wind a string around posts or columns to measure the length needed to wind around.
Keep in mind where your exterior electric plugs are.
Be prepared with LOTS of extension cords and plenty of universal Christmas light clips.
Make sure your extension cord will reach the first string of lights.
Buy extension cords with multiple outlets and/or a splitter.
Test your lights BEFORE you hang them. There’s nothing worse than spending time putting up the lights then plugging them in to find out they don’t work!
Use plastic clips instead of nails or staples.
It’s much easier to hang Christmas lights with a partner who can hold the ladder, hand you clips, and let you know if your lights are straight.
Begin saving Christmas light ideas in Pinterest folders.
Start hanging lights at the top and work down.

Here are some articles that can give you a LOT more info than I can about how to put up Christmas lights:

How to Hang Christmas Lights by Home Depot
A Guide to Outdoor Christmas Decorating
How to Hang Outdoor Christmas Lights Like a Pro by HGTV

Our Outdoor Christmas Light Display

My husband loves putting up Christmas lights. He does it every year. And every year he adds a little more to our outdoor display. We’re lucky to be living with my dad right now on 5 acres surrounded by even more farmland. So we have LOTS of space to decorate!

Front Yard Christmas Lights

Here’s a pretty terrible picture of part of the light display in our front yard. We decided last year (the dreaded 2020) not to decorate the front of the house. We’re out in the country, facing away from the road, and no one can drive by to see our house. Instead, we wrapped the trees in the front yard and put standing light displays along the flowerbeds so that we can see the lights from inside the house. We needed to see the joy and happiness ourselves that year!

Christmas Lights on Gate

Our biggest light display is at our gate out by the road. This is what everyone can see when they drive by our house.

My dad added two tall poles on either side of the gate and strung a wire from one to the other. Then he and my husband ran the colorful Christmas lights up one side, attached them once in the center, and down the pole on the other side.

Then we ran warm white string lights back and forth along the gates.

Christmas Lights on the SheShed

My husband was still working on the porch of the SheShed when I took this picture. We’re planning to add more lights to the porch when it’s finished but at least we started with icicle string lights.

Christmas Lights on the Tractor

I know not everyone has a tractor next to your driveway… but just use what you’ve got! If it doesn’t move, it gets Christmas lights on it around here!

More Outdoor Christmas Light Ideas on Amazon

More Christmas Decorating Ideas

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Thanks for reading this far! We appreciate our readers and would love to hear your outdoor Christmas light ideas.

‘Til the next project,

Ann @ Duct Tape and Denim