9 best outdoor Christmas lights to make your house and garden sparkle

If you’re going for a cosy chalet look this Christmas, these drop-down light clusters are a must. They’re designed to hang from a tree, along a fence or even across the front eaves of a roof for a real alpine aesthetic and boast an impressive 1m drop each. They come in antique white, with the ditsy LED lights giving off a warm glow, keeping the look classy, while the eight settings allow you to choose between different light effects and speeds, including, cleverly, one that looks like snow falling. They come with an energy saving eight-hour timer, too. However, as plug-in lights, the transformer must be kept indoors or in a weatherproof box at all times.

If you take your Christmas illuminations seriously, Twinkly is the name to know. This one may look like an unassuming indoor/outdoor fairy light curtain, but it boasts some truly impressive technology. Download the Twinkly app and you can connect your light display up to Google Home or Amazon Alexa and control it remotely with voice commands.

It features a total of 210 LED bulbs, all connected via a discreet transparent connecting wire. Once you’ve chosen the perfect spot to hang the curtain, you can use your phone’s camera to map the smart lights and let the fun begin. There’s a huge variety of visually arresting pre-sets, and you can even get creative and impress Christmas party guests with your own customisable patterns and colours.

Boasting a total of 800 LED bulbs along a 100m cable, these simple but effective string lights are ideal for larger surface areas, including whole house facades and sizable mature trees. And at under £40, they offer great bang for your buck. In warm white, the small bulbs offer a magical glow without being gaudy, while the discreet electric cord blends into the background. The string lights boast eight different modes, including slow, glow, fade, a twinkle/flash effect, and even waves, all controlled via a nifty remote. Reassuringly, these are entirely waterproof and can withstand extreme temperatures (fingers crossed for a white Christmas, then). Simply plug/unplug and they’ll remember your latest setting.

For something a little more sculptural in the garden – back or front – Cox & Cox’s light up twinkle cone tree is a real head-turner. Simple in design, it features 15 strings of light, which are arranged into a classic cone shape, while the star on top is a glowing beacon of Christmassy magic. Reliably heavyweight and sturdy, the frame is fashioned from black painted iron, while the piece comes with four ground pegs to keep it firmly in place. Overall, the tree boasts 355 warm white bulbs, and there are eight different twinkle functions to choose from, operated via a remote control. While this outdoor light feature is perfectly weatherproof, the transformer and plug should be kept indoors at all times.

While festoon lights are a welcome addition to the back garden at any time of the year, QVC’s offering brings a decidedly Christmassy edge. Ideal for smaller patio spaces, the lights comprise 10 bulbs along a 5m cable and feature a series of ditsy twinkling lights within each transparent acrylic orb. Handily, each bulb boasts a little hook to give you extra control over your hanging display – rather than just using the cable. The power source is a standard 3-pin plug, which will need to be kept indoors or securely covered. At just £25, these prove great value yet offer big impact.

Coloured Christmas lights are divisive but love them or hate them, you can’t deny these are seriously impressive. Twinkly’s bestselling multicolour strings get our top marks for versatility. The LED fairy lights come in a choice of four lengths featuring 100, 250, 400 or 600 lights, and offer endless colour combinations and patterns, all app controlled with Bluetooth and wifi connectivity. We loved playing around with the huge range of pre-made effects on the app, whilst synching them up to music – essentially turning our back garden into a video game style winter wonderland. On the practical side, the lights are reliably weatherproof and come with an indoor-only mains plug.

These pretty starburst lights work just as well in a tree as they do framing a window, making them a versatile offering. They’re also enticingly affordable, given that Christmas is such an expensive time of year. Handily battery powered, they can be placed anywhere outdoors, without having to stay close to a power source. They also feature multi-action control, with eight different modes to choose from, including static if the movement is too much. The warm white spidery lights may be small, but they offer a magical Christmassy vibe, inside or out, and they boast an easy to use timer, giving you six hours of illumination and 18 hours off.

We love this brand for its array of outdoor lighting, not only for Christmas but for year-round garden illuminations. And despite the playful name, this is a company that always delivers on quality. The osby star curtain is an indoor/outdoor number, ideal for hanging in a window or from the roof of a porch. It features five 20cm stars with alternating drops of 40cm and 60cm, allowing for an evenly spaced-out display. The mains powered curtain features 100 LED lights in total, and in warm white, they offer an enchanting festive glow. The lights also boast a silver cable, which further adds to the Christmas sparkle, while a clever timer allows you to set the curtain to come on at the same time every night.

While large-scale illuminated sculptural displays might not be to everyone’s taste, we couldn’t pass up this little character. The silver rattan snowman is just 48cm in height, meaning he’ll happily sit by the front door and welcome your Christmas party guests. The snowman is made from 50 per cent metal and 50 per cent polyethylene, giving it one sturdy structure, while a silver scarf, cute button eyes and a wooden carrot nose complete the look. Inside the body of the snowman is a series of twinkly warm white LED lights, which are thankfully battery powered, complete with a waterproof battery box. There’s also a timer function to ensure the little man doesn’t waste any energy during daylight hours.