How much electricity do Christmas lights use?

Nobody wants to be labeled a Scrooge on the holidays, but rising electricity costs can force even the most festive among us to think twice about stringing up the holiday lights. For example, a Boston man took down his holiday light display after just 15 days because his electric bill shot up by nearly $240—and here we thought the scary stories ended after Halloween.

To be clear, we’re not saying you should ditch your holiday light display—we want to spread that holiday cheer! Instead, we’ll help you figure out how much electricity your lights use and share some tips for reducing electricity usage this holiday season.

Not all Christmas lights consume electricity the same way—their energy usage depends on the bulb type, size, wiring, power source, and other factors. Traditional string lights likely have either incandescent or LED bulbs.

The chart below shows the average amount of electricity (measured in watts) that popular Christmas decorations use based on whether they have incandescent or LED bulbs. All cost calculations assume your lights are on for six hours per day for all 31 days in December and you’re paying the national average cost of electricity—$0.18 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) as of October 2024.

How much electricity do incandescent Christmas lights use?

If your Christmas decor is passed down through generations, you likely have incandescent bulb Christmas lights. If that’s the case, you should invest in new ones: Incandescent Christmas lights use more electricity than any other type and can significantly increase your energy bill.

A string of 100 incandescent Christmas lights uses 40 watts of electricity. A 6-foot Christmas tree is typically lit with at least 600 lights consuming 240 watts. Assuming you have your tree lit for six hours a day, you’d pay over $0.25 per day and about $7.90 for December.

Less than $8 a month might not sound like much, but remember that’s just for one, 6-foot tree. If Clark Griswold is your Christmas light inspiration, prepare for your bill to increase by hundreds of dollars.

How much electricity do LED Christmas lights use?

LED Christmas lights use about 70% less energy than incandescent bulbs on average, making them a much more energy-efficient alternative. As a bonus, LED Christmas lights also last longer and burn brighter.

A string of 100 LED lights uses 5-to-10 watts of electricity (it varies by design and manufacturer). Assuming 10 watts per string, our 6-foot, 600-bulb tree would use 60 watts and cost $0.06 to light for six hours, or $1.98 to your total December electricity costs (assuming you light it six hours a day for 31 days).

Solar-powered, battery, and projection Christmas lights have become popular in recent years, likely because of rising electricity costs. While these Christmas lights typically use LED bulbs, they consume much less electricity than traditional LED string lights.

How much electricity do solar-powered Christmas lights use?

The best part of solar Christmas lights is that they’re powered by the sun and won’t use a drop of your household electricity—a great gift for your wallet and the planet. Solar Christmas lights look like your typical LED Christmas string lights except the cord is connected to mini solar panels and batteries. The panels use sunshine to charge the battery during the day and, when the sun goes down, the battery sends that electricity to light the bulbs.

A string of 100 solar Christmas lights generally uses about 5 watts of electricity and can stay lit for 8-to-12 hours on a complete charge. They come in various lengths, sizes, colors, and brightness levels like any other type of LED Christmas light. But no matter which option you choose, running these lights will add $0 to your electricity costs.

How much electricity do battery-powered Christmas lights use?

Like solar-powered lights, battery-powered Christmas lights don’t need to consume any of your household electricity to run and can save you a lot of money on utility bills. They’re a great option if you don’t have a sunny spot to place the solar panels for your string lights.

A string of 100 LED battery-powered Christmas lights only uses between 3 and 5 watts of electricity, but keep in mind that you’ll need to invest in high-quality batteries (typically AA). Many customers report having to swap out the batteries in their battery-powered Christmas lights between once and twice a week, though this will depend on the brand of lights, the batteries you use, and how long you keep the lights lit. This is partly because batteries degrade faster in the cold, so if you opt for battery-powered lights, consider wrapping some extra insulation around the battery packs. 

How much electricity do projection Christmas lights use?

Projection Christmas lights are a relatively new way to go big with your Christmas display without the hassle of stringing up tons of lights. Each projector typically uses a single LED bulb, which makes them much more energy-friendly and cost-efficient. Wattage varies depending on the bulb, but the projection Christmas lights we found use 5 or 6-watt bulbs.

You likely wouldn’t use a projector to light up a Christmas tree, but we’ll use the same formula we used above to keep an apples-to-apples cost comparison. Using one Christmas projector light for six hours a day throughout December would add about $0.18 to your monthly electricity expenses.

You can find out how much electricity your Christmas lights use by doing a little bit of math. (Don’t worry, we’ll walk you through it.) 

First, grab your most recent electric bill to find how much you pay per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity (your retail electricity rate). If it's not obvious, you can divide your total bill by how much electricity you used (measured in kWh) to find your retail electricity rate.

1. Find the total watts of your lights. The wattage should be listed on the Christmas lights packaging.

2. Multiply the wattage by .001. This gives you the kilowatt hours (kWh).

3. Multiply by the number of hours per day you plan to have your lights lit. This reveals how many kWh the lights will use each day.

4. Multiply by the number of days you plan to have your lights up*. This reveals how many total kWh of electricity your Christmas lights will use while they’re up.

If you want to find out how much your Christmas lights will cost you, add this final step:

• Multiply the total number of kWh by your retail electricity rate. This number reveals how much money your Christmas lights will add to your bill overall.

*Note: If you’d rather know how much electricity your Christmas lights will consume per utility bill, change the number of days to that of your utility billing cycle (typically 28 to 30 days—check your bill). Keep in mind that your billing cycle may not align with the start and end of the month. Or your decor schedule, for that matter.

Switching to solar Christmas lights is a great way to save on added expenses for your holiday displays, but you can enjoy savings all year long by installing a home solar panel system. Going solar is an investment that will save you an average of $50,000 over 25 years—talk about a gift that keeps giving!