Christmas Lights

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the magic of sparkling lights. Hang them on the tree, festoon the living room with them, or fling them in great ropes over the house or trees in the garden to twinkle merrily at passers-by.

As a rule of thumb, buy 100 lights for every 45cm of tree – so a string of 400 lights is perfect for an average 1.8m tree. Here are some of your options:

Mini-lights: for use indoors on Christmas trees and threaded through the bannisters, these are the traditional choice and come in multiple colours or clear, silvery white.

LED lights: coloured or brilliant white, they're very energy-efficient so even though they cost a little more to start with, you'll save it in the electricity bills.

Novelty lights: special covers come in all sorts of shapes from lanterns to snowflakes. You can also get flashing lights which you can programme to do a variety of sequences – try a different one every day!

Outdoor lights: choose from battery-powered, solar-powered and mains powered lights, though for mains-powered make sure you have an outdoor electric socket fitted by a registered electrician.

Please ask the staff in our Uppingham garden centre for more information and advice about choosing your Christmas lights.