Aaron Cohen

LED Christmas Lights Eco Friendly Alternative

Sunday Dec 10, 2006

My wife is Catholic and I am Jewish, and so we typically have a Menorah burning as well as Christmas lights, and sometimes a tree. It's a beautiful way for us to express our differences and our openness to celebrate each other's holidays, faiths, and traditions. This post is about being eco-friendly, and has no judgment on the idea of putting up lights as a form of celebration and tradition. I will first say, I love Christmas lights and always have. My parents used to drive us around the neighborhoods so we, even as Jewish kids,could ooh and ahh at all the beautiful lights. This post is totally at risk of calling me a scrooge, but hear me out.

I posted previously my wishlist to my mother to buy me something (if anything) that is eco-friendly. But riding my bike around Portland, Oregon, which is supposed to be a very green city, has me baffled. The city has so much holiday spirit they must have forgotten that Christmas lights use a whole lot of energy up. Imagine how much energy our city -- if not the planet -- is using up from now until New Years. Someone should do a study. However, I simply cannot imagine how sad it would be if we were told we couldn't have Christmas lights anymore because they weren't eco-friendly. You never know, it could happen some day soon.

With our beautiful trees and restored historical houses here it's ample playground for those beautiful Christmas lights. I've done some very quick web searching and already found some much more eco-friendly lights. Since the holiday season is for giving and sharing, now's the time to share with your family and friends that it's time to think differently about the holiday season, and make it a green holiday.

Tis' time to switch to LED Christmas Lights. Check these out.

They’re 255 times brighter than conventional LEDs, up to 90% more energy-efficient than incandescent lights, and stay cool to the touch even after hours of use. The lights are durable and weatherproof with a strong lens and no fragile filaments, and since each LED lasts up to 200,000 hours, nobody has to worry about trolling through the attic for extra fuses after swilling too much eggnog. Each strand is 24 feet long with 70 LED lights and can be used indoors or out. Multi-colored, $19.95; white $29.95 ::Brookstone MO]
(source)

UPDATE: My wife doesn't like the multi-colored ones. So I quickly did more research. Luckily, there are plenty of varieties available, and they're not all as expensive as the Brookstone one above. Target, for instance, sells some white LED lights and they're only a little more than five bucks.