Christmas Lights

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the magic of sparkling lights. Discover how your home can be transformed into a soft shimmering glow reminiscent of Christmas past or a mass of sparkling lights incorporating the very latest technological advances.

As a rule of thumb, buy 100 lights for every 45cm of tree – so a string of 400 lights is perfect for an average 1.8m tree. Here are some of your options:

Mini-lights: for use indoors on Christmas trees and threaded through the bannisters, these are the traditional choice and come in multiple colours or clear, silvery white.

LED lights: coloured or brilliant white, they're very energy-efficient so even though they cost a little more to start with, you'll save it in the electricity bills.

Novelty lights: special covers come in all sorts of shapes from lanterns to snowflakes. You can also get flashing lights which you can programme to do a variety of sequences – try a different one every day!

Outdoor lights: choose from battery-powered, solar-powered and mains powered lights, though for mains-powered make sure you have an outdoor electric socket fitted by a registered electrician.

Please ask the staff in our Betchworth and Godstone garden centre for more information and advice about choosing your Christmas lights.