White or multi-coloured: the Christmas light debate

CTV Ottawa Published Wednesday, December 3, 2014

All white, or multi-coloured?

Welcome to the great Christmas light debate.

In recent years more homeowners have eschewed the traditional multi-coloured lights for the cleaner look of all white lights. But others say the snow is white enough, and they want to bring a little colour to their Christmas.

Chris Olthof has seen it all. He is a professional Christmas light hanger for Christmas Décor by Nutri-Lawn. He says colours are making a comeback. “A few years ago it was predominantly white. Now we’re switching a lot of people to colours,” he says.

Karen Bomba-Reed is an outdoor lighting specialist at Canadian Tire. She says they sell both types of lights in equal measure. “This year is a 50-50 split,” she says.

She says people with young children will lean toward more colours, while white lights work better on certain styles of homes.

 

But the choice to go all white isn’t so cut and dried anymore. Now LED Christmas lights come in “cool white,” “warm white,” and “pure white.” So you’ve still got a decision to make. “And people are very, very particular about their lights,” says Bomba-Reed. “Either they really like warm white or they really like a cooler pure white.”

Finally, there is the ultimate compromise. Some LED lights, often called RGB lights, can change colours on command. “You can actually change, with an app on your I-Phone, which colour you want your lights to be and you can program a bunch of different patterns in them,” says Olthof. “So that’s the next wave.”

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