Rope lights can be a very festive decoration at Christmas time. Rope lights are safer that the mini string lights because their lights are inside a tube and protected from the winter weather and less easy to break.  

The tubing that surrounds these lights is very flexible so you will be able to follow the shape of your house. You can also be very imaginative and create your own designs and shapes with rope lights. Running them down the sides of your driveway or as landscape path lights will let those who come for visits know where to park and walk for safety. Another possibility would be to mount them on stakes and outline your front yard landscaping. For indoor use they can be used to decorate any large houseplant, your Christmas tree or brighten up a corner of a room.   

Light-emitting diode or LED rope lights are now available for conserving energy. These lights are very tiny bulbs with no filament and this is the reason they are able to use less energy; they also do not get very hot and will last longer than the regular bulbs. The LED lights will burn brighter; they are made of heavy plastic and are very long lasting. They can also last up to 100,000 hours and you can string up to about 600 feet together.  

Because these outdoor rope lights are encased in tubing you can create numerous shapes. Some of the festive shapes you can create are: stockings, bells, candy canes, trees, stars, animals, or a simple holiday greeting. Mounting clips are available for rope lights for the ease of mounting on different surfaces such as a fence or on a frame to stand on your front landscaping. These rope lights can be purchased in many different colors including multi-colored and clear. If you purchase Christmas rope lights that are classified as chasers you can place them on Christmas decorations that have wheels and it will give the impression that the decoration is moving. They can also be wrapped around trees, bushes and hedges, or around a flag pole.

Solar rope lights are a very good choice for landscape rope lighting as they do not need electricity, just the sun as their energy source. They can be used when it is rainy, overcast, or while it is snowing because of their polycrystalline cells. These solar cells are capable of capturing enough energy during dispursed sunlight or a small amount of daylight during the winter months to perform.  

Your backyard garden is also an excellent place for holiday rope lights. Deck rope lighting can be placed along the railings of your deck or along the edge of your deck flooring. They can also be mounted on your landscape fencing to highlight your entire backyard landscaping. Rope lights mounted on stakes used as landscape path lights are a great way to see around the garden. Using rope lights at Christmas and any time during the year is an innovative way of lighting up your garden and landscaping.