Excuse my ignorance, it's about exterior Christmas lights

[Mintyy]

If you have lights outside, do they have to plug in indoors somewhere? And how do you manage that, do you have a window open a crack or a hole drilled through a wall, or what?

Bump or should I put this in Christmas mebbe.

I was wondering the same thing!

We put ours through a window and then close it. However our windows are shite and probably don't fit the frame properly.

We plug into the garage and feed the wire under the door.

I have limited electrical knowledge, but here's what I know
Years ago I wanted Christmas lights (DH has since chopped down the trees I wanted them on ), so we were going to install an outside socket, I think they are attached to the mains through a hole in the wall and they are weatherproof, so won't blow up when the rain gets in them. So then you would just plug your lights into them as you would an ordinary socket (making sure that they are designed for the outside so are waterproof).

We have an outdoor socket for garden lights, but at the front of the house we put the wire down the edge of the front door as it is fairly flat and then they go round the door. Luckily there is a socket just inside.

I plug inside into a quick trip circuit breaker thing and trap the thin wire through the window. It squishes in the thick seal but the window still closes well.

you should have a weatherproof outdoor socket. The conventional method of an extension lead plugged in through a window and wrapped in a plastic bag is not considered best practice.

remember to turn them off well before midnight and don't have them flashing in the neighbour's windows. You know who you are.

Our garden isn't so big that we need an extension lead in a plastic bag. The actual lights don't start for a good few meters.

We have battery powered outdoor ones just because of all these problems.

We have lights in bay trees either side of the front door, dh fitted outdoor sockets, but before that he ran the cable in to the house through the wall.

Same as mayhem for the front and we have two double sockets at the back.

We have exterior grade extension leads with built in rcds (from b & q). We usually route them out through the little fanlight windows, which just about close over them.

Also battery powered outdoor lights Definitely the easiest option!

Can you get solar ones?

Ours get "trapped" through the window. Closes fine and works fine.

My mum has a huge outside display ,some are plugged in in the garage and wires come out of the doors and we also have outdoor sockets that my DH put in a few years ago and we plug several sets of lights / trees /reindeers into each by using waterproof boxes . We put them up the last weekend of November ready for December 1st switch on .

We have outdoor waterproof sockets at both the front and back of the house.

We had them installed by an electrician when we were having some work done. It means you can also plug in lawn mowers and hedge trimmers without having to trail an extension lead from inside. Oh and the hoover when you hoover out all those crumbs that children inevitably leave in the car.

Ours get fed through the front windows, and then the windows are shut. The cables for LED lights are quite fine, so they don't stop the Windows from shutting properly.

However, the trees that we decorate are just outside the windows, and the windows are the full height of the room, so the leads are fairly unobtrusive, as they are at floor level.

(Actually, DH wires both the tree lights and the outside lights so that you can turn them on and off at the light switch, rather than at a wall socket, which makes things very easy.)

You can get solar powered lights, but there's not that much sun this time of year. Ours are plugged in the garage on a timer there's plenty of room to run the wire down the side of the door. We have an outside socket but to run the lights where we want the wires would be a trip hazard.