Daft question - outdoor Christmas lights

[GarethSouthgatesWaistcoat]

How do you power Christmas lights on the front of your house if you don't have an outdoor power socket?

So many houses round here have them - I'd like to join in and add some warm white ones to the shrubbery in my front garden (not a euphemism).

I've tried the battery timer lights but they seemed to run down my decent rechargeable batteries very quickly. The battery packs were fixed with 4 tiny screws which were very fiddly to unscrew every few days/ every week.

I don't have a porch or side access (mid terrace).

We have bought three lots of solar lights - 30 m each. They have a usb inside the charger which can be brought in to recharge via a laptop if the weather is too dull. Also, I’ve bought 8 spiral solar lanterns to put in our tree. X

We just open the UPVC window, feed the cables through, and close the window again. There is enough give in the seals we can close it no problem.

So glad you asked this, I thought I was the only one who didn't know and was embarrassed to ask!

We do what Holox does too. We've taken the plug off the extension lead, ran it through the wall where the old Aerial came through & then re attached the plug. It's all in one of those water proof boxes too. Very neat.

@123fushia

We have bought three lots of solar lights - 30 m each. They have a usb inside the charger which can be brought in to recharge via a laptop if the weather is too dull. Also, I’ve bought 8 spiral solar lanterns to put in our tree. X

Those sound interesting, may I ask where you purchased?

I'll probably stick with mains power this year off the back of this thread but useful for next year (summer and winter!)

@Holox

So we're just talking about putting up outdoor lights now, husband has bought 600 more today (Every year there's a reason we need more lights!) Plus an outdoor sealed socket box so were thinking the extension could be ran out of a window. Extension cable is much fatter than flat cables that lights tend to have however, so decided wasn't ideal. Remembered we have a redundant old aerial cable coming through the front wall, so now going to take the plug off to pass through the wall in to the living room and rewire the plug. Thinking this may be an option for others??

That's very cunning I'm chuckling at the 600 more lights, you can never have enough right?!

I've ordered some warm white ones from Argos as they have 25% off and I realised I had a gift card! I'd like some multicoloured pastel berry ones but they're out of stock 😱
Fingers crossed they replenish this week, I keep refreshing the page in hope! I've heard Covid has interfered with the availability of electrical this year - all from China no doubt. The lights aren't exactly essential so I'm sure I'll cope if they don't restock

I'm going to try the uPVC window method.

@Understandingnotignorance

So glad you asked this, I thought I was the only one who didn't know and was embarrassed to ask!

Glad I'm not alone!

Here’s the link to our solar lights. Working well so far.
www.thesolarcentre.co.uk/products/Lumify_USB_Solar_Fairy_Lights_Warm_White_300_LEDs-775-77.html

You can drill a small hole in the edge of the window for the electric cable.

As pp said, flex through window!

Weatherproof box for an extension plug. It’s a big plastic crate with waterproof sealings. Cheap and easy to buy.

Run an extension cable out of the house into the box. Plug everything into the box. Close it. Done.

I'm following this with interest as I was thinking exactly the same - so many people with loads of lights outside now and I was wondering how they did it. That makes sense that the wire is thin, I was another imagining a big thick flex and wondering how you get that through the window!

The thing is where we live, hardly anyone drives past our house so I don't think it's really worth loads of outside lights!