Cypress Homes and Realty is excited because holiday season is upon us again, and that means decorations, more specifically trying to outdo your neighbors with amazing light displays! However, though we want out houses to look festive, it comes with a price…a GIGANTIC energy bill!

If you still want to make your house look like a winter wonderland, we have come up with a few tips to help you save on your energy costs this holiday season! Check out some of our houses and just imagine the awesome light displays you could do if you had one of our homes! Below are 10 Crazy Light Displays and tips to help you save:

1. LED lights are the way to go. They look brighter than regular Christmas lights and will save you a ton of money that can be better spent on Christmas presents for loved ones. Maybe try more than one color though…

2. The average wattage of LED lights is about 0.1 watts per bulb, while the average wattage of regular lights is about 0.4 watts per bulb. Though the bulbs cost more, you will save in the long run!

3. Don’t forget to put a timer on your lights so that they aren’t shining brightly at 3am when no one can appreciate them. No one is going to try and rob this house during the Christmas season! Not with an army of light up angels and nutcrackers surrounding the perimeter!

4. Buy lights a few days after Christmas to prepare for next year! The day after Christmas means all decorations are 50{447216cae66a4d332ab0ac71eb11e27716218036a4f422ac40162b059a195e14} at most stores! Sure, you’ll be one of those crazy shoppers getting up at the crack of dawn to get a deal, but you will definitely love the savings!

5. Solar powered lights are also becoming a new fad and will save you so much! Lining the perimeter of your home and using a tasteful amount of decorations on trees and the yard is the way to go to make your neighbor’s jealous.

6. Make your neighbor’s jealous by creating unique displays with lights bought at discount stores! You can save almost half the price!

7. Buy a bulb tester and repair your broken strings of lights rather than buy new ones! The bulb tester and time you spend repairing lights is much cheaper than having to buy multitudes of new strings of lights.

8. Try not to go over the top with lighting up your home. It’ll look awesome even if you use a few strings of lights, its all about creativity, not seeing how many lights you can fit onto one home.

9. Determine the amount of money you want to spend in lights and other decorations before you go to the store. Set that amount as your limit so you do not spend more than you were anticipating.

10. Also, though smaller lights are more of a trend today, you can buy lights with bigger bulbs! You wont need as many strings of light and they last much longer than smaller bulbs.

We hope you all have a great holiday season! Good luck with decorating and making your home the envy of the neighborhood! If you want to get really creative, try setting your lights to music like this home in Darboy, Wisconsin did: Wisconsin’s Best Christmas Light Display!