Holiday Lighting Trends
There are so many holiday lighting options these days: incandescent, LED, RGB, steady or shimmer, G40, and 5mm ― the list goes on! But what’s really new and trendy? As Christmas experts, we’ve compiled a helpful list of lighting trends to help you keep your displays and properties looking modern and exciting this season.
1. RGB Animated Lighting
The most significant trend in 2019 is our Giant RGB Sequoia Trees. These trees operate with C7 RGB light strands that are preprogrammed to synchronize with music, so the tree comes to life and appears to dance!
Currently, we offer eight songs, each with their own animated package. We can also customize giant trees and programs for customers that want a truly unique show. In addition to trees, the same RGB technology is in our light strands, spheres, and tubes. They can be ground-mounted or hung in trees for a colorful and stimulating look!
2. LED Lighting
Long gone are the days when people preferred incandescent lighting over LED to avoid a “blue-ish” tint. Nowadays, LED lights come in the same warm white tones we are used to enjoying, and we even have more options!
If you’re looking for a specific tone of white, we can control the color of white using the Kelvin rating. Warm white falls into the 2,000-3,000 range and a cool white is about 4,600-6,500. LED light strands are energy efficient and long lasting. LED lights convert 90% of their energy to light as opposed to heat, making them safer as well.
3. Mixing Warm and Cool White
A European trend we have mentioned before entails mixing warm and cool white lighting in trees and décor elements. The two-tone looks add interest and can be used in thoughtful ways like to accent a bow or to outline an otherwise flat feeling pole mount.
Lately, we have been selling an increasing number of trees with both tones for added depth.
One of our most popular looks is a warm white tree with cool white snowflakes attached and the difference in color really makes the tree and snowflakes stand out majestically.
4. Geometric Bulbs
Geometric patterns have been “in” for a while in regards to fashion and interior design, so it’s only natural the trend has found its way to Christmas. Geometric shapes are very versatile and come across as timeless and elegant – often because they do, in fact, look like gems! These lights generally still use a 5mm or pepper light bulb surrounded by an opaque or open shape which adds to the interest. Geometric light strands can be utilized in a variety of décor themes including a vintage Americana look, a whimsical feel, or even to relay a chic, luxurious vibe.
5. Movement
We have tons of lighting options with movement at Dekra-Lite. Our most popular is snowfall, which is a tube that shows an LED fall emulating snowfall. These tubes look great in Christmas trees, regular deciduous trees, and even garlands. For a similar look with more movement, we have meteor lites that utilize mini lights and the same action for a firecracker look. One of our most popular year-round light strands is our firefly lights which use a frosted bulb with 2" spacing, making them perfect for strategically placing in tree canopies and shrubs. The movement is meant to mimic fireflies; it is random and soft.
Of course, movement can be included anywhere, and our designers have started to decorate wreaths and trees in twinkle lighting because people respond to the movement. Our entire waterloo and regal decoration collections utilize twinkle lighting, and we’re beginning to design and develop pole mounts and other pieces that use a rope light chasing or waterfall effect to highlight swirls and stars. The results are always dazzling!
6. Neon Flex
Most of us are familiar with rope light. It has been around a while and is frequently used in light pole designs and to outline metal framed ground mounts. The new kid on the block is neon flex which looks just like rope light but encased in a thick and opaque band, so it more closely looks like neon minus the phosphorus gas. Since your eye sees a solid color instead of the LED diodes that make up rope light, the effect is modern and clean. We’re currently developing more décor elements using neon flex, but we also sell our neon flex lighting in spools so you can experiment yourself!
7. Vintage Bulbs
Filament, vintage or Edison bulbs are trending right now in contemporary holiday lighting. They’ve proven successful at coffee shops and restaurants patios so why not Christmas? The bulbs give off a warm amber glow. This makes them feel nostalgic, yet somehow modern depending on the color scheme and how they are used. The main feature in this lighting is the filament, which can be seen from the clear bulb. We have many different vintage bulb options, mostly in glass, that have different shapes and textures for your projects. We primarily use them in year-round festival lighting, but they look just as good in Christmas and deciduous trees as well.
