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  Every year the Friday after Thanksgiving, my wife bravely goes to malls to fight for a deal.  I bravely go in the cold, wet, possibly snowy in chicago, outside to show my holiday spirit with trees, wreaths, and lights.  This year I tried to add a little bit more of flare with a spot light and two flood lights.  With 90 wattage bulbs my wife started asking the neighbor who stop by to ask about the lights if he had his pilots licenses.   I needed to check the lights before I went to work to see if it seems too bright.  I found out that it was so bright that planes started circling the house.  Now with lower wattage not only will I will save on electricity and the grief from my wife.  

When selecting lighting for outside make sure the bulbs, fixtures, and cords are rated for outside use.  These items will go through rain, cold, and snow, they need to be check every year before they put installed.  Outside outlet should be GCFI outlet (ground fault circuit interrupter) This will make sure that the holidays are spent enjoying your friends and family, instead of holidays in the dark.  

A LED holiday is a holiday that will save you money, electricity, a lot safer that any other bulbs.  LED lights may a few dollars more than other bulbs.  The savings is in that they will out last incandesce bulbs by years.  They can be handled without having to worry about the bulbs breaking.  The wattage is a less than incandesce bulbs. It will pay for itself in the first year in what you would pay for electricity.  The safety factor is in the heat.  LED produce little or no heat.  This means less chance that you will have a fire.  They have LED candles. http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/94ce/ that can replace wax candles.  Kids can not get burned, no wax on table or floors, and can burn for days.

Have a safe, happy, holiday season.  Let the lights shine bright.

Criminals hate light. It shows everyone what people are doing outside your house at night.  I makes it harder for crime to happen.   Weather it is the front of your house or the back, first part of home security is lighting.  Lights can be set on a timer or have motion activated switch.  Some lights can activate with the setting of the sun.  The choice depends on you needs.  I tried the switch that activated when the sun went down.  Because of the trees around my house in the summer the lights were on all day do to the shade they provided.  I changed to a timer that I have set to sunset to sunrise.  I only have to adjust it for daylight savings twice a year.  My back yard has motion activated flood light that provides much needed light when going to and from the garage at night.  

Lighting is also part of a homes charm.  Lighting should fit to the house and add to the value.  When looking for lights there are thousands of different designs and sources.  

After vandals broke my front light I was upset to say the least.  I have the only pole light on the block.  It adds a lot of light besides the street lights that are above the trees.  The vandals only broke the glass and not the bulbs.  The glass is too expensive to just replace the glass.  I had to go out and get a new light.  I went with the Westinghouse Riverband model 64866 textured rust patina finish with water glass and Tiffany accents.  http://www.amazon.com/Westinghouse-64866/dp/B00067YRCO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1258509096&sr=8-1 It takes a stander A-19 bulb.  I put in a new 32 LED bulb thats energy efficient.  Installation went very easy because I had put in the pervious light and new how it was wired.  It took 15-20 minutes to complete the install, now I have a new light.