During December, I often hear my husband whispering to the kids, “Make sure you turn the Christmas lights on before Mommy gets up. She likes to walk out and see it lit up!”
Ahhh, yes, this man definitely knows me! You know what else usually gets lit up during the holiday season?? The electric bill.
I’m feeling a bit like Debbie Downer just mentioning it when things are supposed to be festive and fun, but it’s normally a reality that when you’re running all those extra lights for decoration, you have to pay for all that prettiness.
Part of how we’re trying to combat that this year is by switching to LED lights. They use 90% less energy than regular incandescent light strings (the ones we’re used to!!). That energy savings translates into actual dollar bills for you! LED lights only cost 27 cents to run for 12 hours day for 40 days versus $10 for incandescent bulbs. That’s like getting a strand of lights for free!
Not just that, but they stay cooler which makes me feel much safer using them indoors and next to real greens. Like I did with this pretty Christmas card display box.
This was beyond easy to make! I just used a wood box that I had sitting around, a strand of LED Starry String Lights and some glitter scrapbook paper. The paper serves the extra purpose of being reflective so the ambiance from the lights gets an extra boost!
There’s no need to use lights everywhere in your decorations if the places you do use them, provide an extra reflective kick! More bang for your buck and a lower electric bill.
These LED Starry String Lights are the key to making this look good!
All I did was start wrapping them around my box in a random pattern. They’re wire, so they bend and stay in place exactly how you put them. Plus, they’re so pretty, they even look nice when they aren’t lit! There’s no way you could get this same affect with a regular strand of old-fashioned Christmas lights!
Then I just cut my glitter scrapbook paper into little pennant shapes. All I did was tuck them up into the light strands and they are secured! I even jumped around a few times with it to see if they would come out, but they’re in there nice and tight!
I love that the lights draw attention to all the smiling faces of our friends and family! What better thing to put on display?! Thanks so much to PPL Electric Utilities and Project Envolve for sponsoring this post. It’s been so fun challenging myself to see where I can save money and still have gorgeous decorations!
Be sure to check out the PPL Electric Utilities Pinterest Board for more holiday decorating tips!