Illuminating Ways to Make Season Bright
Christmas is a light show. Twinkling lights--outdoors on rooftops and shrubbery and indoors on wreaths, garlands, entryways, mantels and stairway banisters--herald the season and illuminate the county.
They help set a special mood for the holiday season.
Used sparingly indoors combined with soft lighting or a fire in the hearth, Christmas lights can create a warm glow for intimate moments. Used bold and bright, they help create a sparkling, festive atmosphere for larger celebrations.
And for the more whimsical, there are lights with special plastic covers that turn them into novel interior decorations. Styles available include Santas, teddy bears, candles--even red chili peppers and exotic-looking lizards for lovers of Southwest decor.
Elin Pittman, manager of the Pottery Barn in Newport Beach, says some customers hang the chili pepper and beige, orange and black lizard lights on their patios, while others blend them in with their interior Southwest decor.
The chilies, for example, can add a bit of color and whimsy when wound around a lodge pole ladder draped with a serape or they can give a Christmas tree a Southwest theme. Or the lizards can adorn a mantle, mixed among candle holders and other objets d’art from Mexico.
The most popular lights, however, are the white mini-lights that blink on and off in quick succession and seem to chase each other all the way along the string.
“The mini-lights are very attractive,” says Jan Abajian of Flowers and Things in La Habra, “especially the clear ones that go with everything.” Abajian creates floral decorations and other Christmas decor for her clients and uses the lights in a variety of ways.
“You can drape them in and out of your greenery. . . . It really makes it festive,” she says. Sometimes she intertwines the lights into greenery framing a mirror; a Christmas wreath hung on a wall; a garland on a stairway banister or mantle or even on a sideboard in a dining area. Or she may drape them in the branches of an indoor ficus tree, using twisted pipe cleaners to hold them in place.
When Dale Fahrney of Dale Fahrney and Associates Interior Design in Corona del Mar does holiday decorating for his clients, he likes to use a lot of lights for more impact. One trick he says he learned from florists is to bunch mini-lights in clusters to adorn a garland, wreath or Christmas tree.
Clusters of red lights on a garland, he says, look a bit like bunches of little berries. He says the clusters are formed by grouping a few lights together and then wrapping the string around itself a time or two. “I’ve seen a whole set of 35 used in a cluster, and that was quite nice,” Fahrney says.
A small strand of lights on a large poinsettia, he says, is decorative and gives the poinsettia “a little more personality.” (Take care to keep lights dry, however.)
Both Fahrney and Abajian like to use lights in table centerpieces for parties. The best approach to avoid dangling extension cords around tables, they say, is to get battery-operated mini-lights, which usually last about four hours.
Interior designer Patricia Mickey of PMA Design Group in Costa Mesa also likes the mini-lights, but suggests using them only to supplement existing lighting.
“Our approach is to utilize the lighting to assist in the conveyance of the mood and to highlight those areas you want to highlight, rather than using the lighting as a focal point,” Mickey says. “Just because you already have it doesn’t mean you can’t work with it,” she says.
Using existing track lighting is one approach. For example, a track light can be redirected to spotlight a tree or a special display area, she says.
She also suggests the use of little portable spots as “up lights.” The spot can be hidden in garland or in a special display of Santa, a Nativity scene or even a porcelain deer. “It can be a little more interesting,” Mickey says, “because if you hide the source, it’s almost like it’s glowing from within.”
People who want more elaborate holiday lighting sometimes turn to firms such as Dekra-Lite in Irvine for help. Dekra-Lite plans to adorn the exteriors of about 2,400 Orange County houses with lights this holiday season.
Last year, the average Dekra-Lite charge for holiday lights was $340, according to owner Arnold Mahler. The minimum price was $165, while the most expensive lighting design was $3,500.
The more extensive designs may include lighting a boat dock, spelling out “Merry Christmas” on a rooftop or lighting shrubbery and trees.
A basic minimum design, he says, would include lighting the roof line of a home, the front door and perhaps a small window. A large window might cost an additional $45, while lighting an exterior tree would be about $65.
Tricks of the trade, according to Mahler, include putting lighting on timers and using special adapters to draw power from outdoor light fixtures or landscape lighting. He also suggests using extension cords and strings of lights that are exactly the right length.
Safety is a primary consideration when designing holiday lighting indoors or outdoors, says Vandie Gervais, owner of Elf & Magic in Santa Ana. Her staff takes care to make sure lights are carefully secured and will not fall on anyone, that the amount of wattage needed won’t overload circuits and that any extension cords used are out of the way and won’t be stepped on.
“We do not like to use extension cords, especially around children,” Gervais says of indoor installations. She also says it’s not safe to use mini-lights on something in the middle of a room, because there is no way to safely run an extension cord to it.
Gervais also says care should be taken when using mini-lights with fresh garland because it dries out and can become a fire hazard. She uses fresh garland only when she can replace it regularly or make sure it is still moist every 10 days or so. She suggests using artificial garland if decorations will be up more than a week or so.
“A lot of people don’t understand electricity,” she says. In fact, she says some people hire her company to do lighting for them because they are concerned about electrical safety or perhaps don’t want to climb into that tree in the front yard and string lights.
Anyone planning on doing extensive holiday lighting themselves should at least consult with an electrician first, Gervais says. She suggests having an electrician come out and discuss what you plan to do, the best way to do it and what the limitations of your electrical circuits might be. Not doing this may result in tripped circuit breakers or more serious problems, she cautions.
