Get matched with top holiday decorators in Winter, WI

First of all, don’t shop for bargain lights—often, you’ll end up with a faulty or broken strand, full of dead bulbs or less-than-luminous brightness. Choose quality lights that will last you many years—LED lights have been known to last as long as 100,000 hours. Second, plan ahead and purchase lights for next year’s Christmas during this year’s post-holiday sales. Finally, have a vision and a plan—if you know the measurements of your home, including any windows, doors, and outside bushes you wish to light up, you should be able to only purchase the necessary lights and not more than you need.

Outdoor Christmas lights cost between $80 to $300 on average without installation. This comes out to about $4 to $50 per strand. You can get a box of outdoor Christmas lights for as little as $20, if you just want to decorate a small area, like a doorway. If you want to go all out and cover your entire home, you'll need between 10 to 20 strands of 100 to 200 bulbs each.

Heavy amounts of snow could be a problem. In many climates, lots of snow on your rooftop can lead to freeze-thaw cycle that create ice dams, which can damage rooftops. But if you’re using shingle clips, this snow poses an additional problem: As it melts and freezes, it can easily dislodge clips you’ve placed on your roof.

You can clean snow off your roof after a fresh snowfall while it’s still lightweight, but brushing off snow can also dislodge your clips. If you get a lot of snow, then roof clips become less viable.

There aren’t many alternative methods to hanging Christmas lights on fascia without using clips. But if you don’t have fascia clips to hang your Christmas lights, you can use clothespins in a pinch. To do this, hold the strand of lights in place and clip it in place with the clothespin. Using nails or staples is never a good idea, as they can damage your fascia.