The 10 Best Laser Holiday Lights
This wiki has been updated 36 times since it was first published in December of 2016. If you are a bit nervous about climbing up a ladder to decorate your house this year or just don't want to deal with the hassle, why not try a quicker and equally eye-catching option? These laser lights are a cinch to set up and can project a variety of Christmas-themed images onto your home, business, or landscape. Just be careful not to shine them into the sky or look directly at the beam. When users buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn commissions to help fund the Wiki.
1. BulbHead Star Shower
2. Philips Rotating
3. 1byOne Landscape
Editor's Notes
October 14, 2020:
New to the list is the Brightown Snowfall, which creates a falling snow effect that's a good choice for anyone looking for a subtler display without too many flashy colors. On the other hand, the LEDMall Firefly projects shapes in red, green, blue, or any combination thereof. Its three themes offer Christmas shapes, Halloween shapes, and abstract designs that work year-round. The Starry Two-Color and Liu Hang Festival were removed due to quality concerns.
Some of the items on the list are projector lights rather than "true" lasers, but they all provide users with a way to make their home festive without untangling long cords or taking the ladder out of storage.
If you do choose a bright laser, like the BulbHead Star Shower or 1byOne Landscape, be sure to aim it directly at your home or garden, without letting any of the light shine into the sky. The FAA warns that improperly aimed lights can be a potential hazard to pilots flying overhead. And be sure not to look directly into the beams, especially at close range, as this may be damaging to your eyesight. This is especially important for households with young children or pets to be aware of.
Used responsibly, however, these lights provide an easy and affordable way to bring the holiday season to any home.
September 30, 2019:
Traditional Christmas lights can transform your home for the holidays, but they sure can be a hassle to put up. Rather than climbing a ladder in the cold – or paying someone else a pretty penny to do it – consider getting a laser light projector. These are a refreshingly low-maintenance alternative to strings of lights, and they’re often highly affordable, to boot.
Joining the list is the Philips Rotating, which comes from an established lighting brand. It features rotating, white snowflakes in a variety of shapes and designs. It can be placed at a wide range of heights, thanks to its swiveling head that can be set at many an angle. If you’re looking for a muted look without all of the flashing colors, this might be the perfect option for you – and it comes in at a highly affordable price.
Look to the newly added Ocean Wave 2-In-1 if you plan to use your projector not just for the winter holidays. For instance, for Halloween, you’ve got a spooky eyeball, a witch, a vampire and a skull. You can celebrate a birthday by displaying a cake, balloons, and presents. And you can light up your home on the Fourth of July with a rocket, top hat, and fireworks – all in patriotic red, white, and blue colors. Of course, it also comes with an array of Christmas and winter-related images.
The Ion Party comes on board and features a somewhat unusual design, featuring a multi-faceted, domed lens that projects large moving spots onto the outside of your home. It features popular Christmas colors and can cover up to 4,000 square feet. Its display is fun to sit and watch as the patterns constantly shift.
For a model that’s built with safety in mind, look to the Yinuo Mirror LED, which will shut off automatically if its temperate becomes too hot – and it also is made from aluminum alloy, which is effective at dissipating heat. It’s constructed for the long haul, with a rust-proof build and generous, 50,000-hour LED lifespan.
Another new addition is the Samyoung Water Wave, which has you covered for an impressive list of holidays, including Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Thanksgiving, thanks to its 12 interchangeable slides that project an array of images. Its sturdy waterproof gasket will keep it protected from rain and snow.
Leaving the list today since they’re no longer available are the Tofu Proteove, Cheriee Light Star, Bellar 37P, Instecho LED, and AoStar Magic.
October 22, 2018:
Many of the previous models had to be removed due to longevity issues, such as the charge Spotlight Projector and LaserXplore Light Show. We did our best to filter out any low-quality models, which seem to be prevalent in this category, while also including models to meet every budgetary constraint.
4. Ocean Wave 2-In-1
5. LEDMall RGB
6. LEDMall Firefly
7. Brightown Snowfall
8. Yinuo Mirror LED
9. Ion Party
10. Samyoung Water Wave
Benefits Of Laser Holiday Lights
Nails leave behind unattractive holes once they are removed, and leaving them in your walls all year long often results in a trail of rust dripping.
Anybody who has ever decorated their house with holiday lights before knows they can be a real hassle. Sure, they look great when done correctly. And they definitely add a festive flair to the neighborhood, but the danger, frustration, and expense associated with them often make it feel as if it wasn't worth the effort. Luckily, there is now a better solution. Laser holiday lights offer all of the benefits of traditional holiday lights, without any of the downsides.
One of the most frustrating aspects of dealing with string-style holiday lights is the tangle-prone cord. No matter how hard you try and pack them away the year before so they don't tangle next time you pull them out, it just never seems to work. If you are like most people, you probably spend 30 minutes to an hour just trying to untangle the cord before you even begin to start decorating. Unlike string lights, laser holiday lights don't have a long and frustrating cord to deal with. All they have is a short power cord that plugs them into your AC outlet.
Hanging string lights is quite dangerous, as well. So many people have fallen off ladders while trying to hang string lights on their roof or a tree that the Consumer Product Safety Commission has published holiday decorating ladder safety guidelines. With laser holiday lights, you don't have to risk your safety by climbing high up on a ladder or getting onto your roof. All you have to do is plug them in and point them at whatever you want to light up with a festive element. That means your holiday decorating will be safer and take significantly less time.
Even if you don't mind wasting a bunch of time trying to untangle a cord and you aren't worried about falling off a ladder, adhering string lights to the roof or walls of your home can be problematic. No matter which type of adhesive you use to attach the lights, you risk damaging the surface where you are hanging them. Nails leave behind unattractive holes once they are removed, and leaving them in your walls all year long often results in a trail of rust dripping. Glue and other sticky substances may remove some of your home's paint when you try to pull them off. Since you don't have to adhere laser holiday lights to your home, this is never an issue with them.
Keeping Lasers Where They Belong
If you decide to decorate your home with laser holiday lights this year, there is one very important thing you need to be aware of. Never arrange your light so that the laser is decorated skywards. You must place them in a manner that ensures the entire laser beam lands squarely on your home. This is especially important if you live near an airport where planes might make a low pass over your home as they approach the landing strip.
The Federal Aviation Administration has said that lasers pointing skywards can be potentially dangerous to pilots and threaten the safety of the aircraft and everybody on board. If a laser holiday light shines into a cockpit, it creates a large windshield-filling blob of light, temporarily causing flash blindness in the pilot and co-pilot, even if it doesn't hit them directly in the eyes. If somebody has ever taken your photo at night and used the flash, then you are probably familiar with the effects of flash blindness and you can imagine how dangerous this could be if you were piloting a 70-ton machine.
Just as stray lasers can be hazardous to pilots, they can also be hazardous to drivers if they shine in their eyes. For this reason you should also ensure that your laser holiday lights never veer off your house and into the street. Always check your laser light arrangement after dark too, so it will be easier to see exactly where they are pointed.
The History Of Christmas Decorations
Many historians believe the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree started in the 8th century C.E. with the English monk Saint Boniface. It is said that he brought a fir tree to Germany for them to decorate, claiming that the triangular shape of the tree represented the Holy Trinity. The extremely devout Germans took to decorating the tree with simple white candles as a form of public worship.
In the 1840s, Germany started a new trend in Christmas decorations with the advent of the bauble.
Until the 1700s, Christmas trees were always outdoor decorations, but in 1605, this tradition changed when someone in Strasbourg, France brought their Christmas tree indoors and decorated it with wafers, sweets, nuts, paper flowers, and candles. This kicked off a whole new era in holiday decorating and soon indoor Christmas trees became the standard.
In 1610, tinsel made its first appearance in the holiday decorating scene. Unlike the cheap plastic tinsel of today, the original tinsel was actually pure silver. Tinsel makers would hammer sheets of silver until they were paper thin, and then them cut into strips. They became so popular that they eventually had to turn to machine production to keep up with demand.
Overtime the tradition of decorating Christmas trees spread to England, where people started creating more and more elaborate decorations, such as glass beads and hand-sewn snowflakes. Finally, in the 1800s, the Christmas tree decorating tradition arrived in America. In the 1840s, Germany started a new trend in Christmas decorations with the advent of the bauble. They started out at as fruit and nut-shaped glass before eventually taking on the spherical shape often seen today. Initially, baubles were only for the wealthy since they were ornately adorned and handcrafted from glass.
American insurance companies are responsible for the shift from candles to Christmas lights. They went so far as to try and get laws passed banning the use of candles as tree decorations because of the many fires they had caused over the years. An ingenious American by the name of Ralph Morris invented the first electric Christmas tree lights in 1895 and the rest, as they say, is history.
Sheila is a writer and editor living in sunny Southern California. She studied writing and film at State University of New York at Purchase, where she earned her bachelor of arts degree. After graduating, she worked as an assistant video editor at a small film company, then spent a few years doing freelance work, both as a writer and a video editor. During that time, she wrote screenplays and articles, and edited everything from short films to infomercials. An ardent lover of the English language, she can often be found listening to podcasts about etymology and correcting her friends’ grammar.