5 Ways to Use Christmas Lights with Your Halloween Decorations

Aug 23rd 2022

Updated August 22, 2023

Decorating for Halloween has become increasingly popular, maybe because the holiday offers such a diverse canvas for creativity. You can dress your home for autumn using scarecrows, colored corn and dried materials, or dive into the spookier aspects of Halloween decorations, with ghosts, ghouls and witches.

While you’re putting up all your outdoor Halloween decorations, however, give careful thought to how you’ll light the display after dark. The string lights you put up for Christmas often can do double-duty during Halloween. Here are a few creative lighting ideas to enhance your Halloween decorating scheme.

Consider Your Color Options

When it comes to Halloween lights, color is key. Blue, green and purple seem to make your decorations glow and can add to the unearthly aspect of your display. Red and orange Halloween lights also can add a dramatic effect – mimicking fire under a witch’s cauldron or lighting a porch or pumpkin, for instance. You also can place orange lights along fences and porch rails as a backdrop for deeper-toned decorations.

Play with Shadow

Remember telling ghost stories in the dark, when you placed a flashlight under your chin for an eerie effect? Blue or purple flood lights placed at ground level and aimed upward at your Halloween decorations can produce a similar creepy atmosphere. Use your flood lights to light up a wide area or emphasize a single spooky feature.

Define Your Walkway

Provide a safe route to your front door (and the treats) with Halloween pathway lights. Halloween-themed stake lighting is popular, but there are other ways to mark the path. Use luminaries to line the walk, hang lanterns from hooks or string lights along the path on stakes that are two to three feet high.

Enhance the Landscaping

Transform the trees and bushes in your yard with light. Twine Halloween string lights up tree trunks and along branches and arrange net lights over bushes to help set the scene. If you have more than one tree in your yard, consider stringing lights between them to create a canopy overhead. Tuck in a few huge rubber spiders or bats for extra creep factor.