michelle kaufmann designs

What’s not to love about holiday lights? They’re beautiful, cheery and sure to fill all but the Grinchiest of Grinches with the holiday spirit.  But traditional holiday lights do come with one major drawback: their emense energy consumption.  Holiday lights can add more than $100 to your monthly energy bill during a time when you’re already empting your pockets on gifts, entertaining, and travel.  Luckily, you now have the option of using LED lights, which consume 80 to 90 percent less energy than their conventional cousins (they also produce far less heat, making them much less of a fire hazard).

To go the extra green mile, take your decorations of the grid with solar powered LED lights. You can find a great selection at SolarSanta.com (just don’t opt for their prelit wreaths since they’re made with eco-unfriendly PVC).  Attached to small solar panel with a rechargable battery inside, these LED strands get juiced up during the day and are then ready to light up the night once the sun goes down. When the power runs out, they’ll turn off on their own, so you don’t have to worry about unplugging them - especially helpful on those nights you come home late from holiday cocktail parties.