12 to 18 Foot Trees
Buying an unlit 12 to 18 foot tree and wondering how many lights you’ll need? Scroll to the bottom of this page to find out!
How Many Lights & Bulbs are Needed to Cover a 12- to 18-foot Christmas Tree?
Some people would argue that lights are the most beautiful part of the Christmas tree. White, multi-colored, or single colored, their shining brightness twinkles amongst the branches and ornaments and make the tree sparkle. If this is your first time decorating a Christmas tree, or if you want to give it a more professional look this year, then you might be wondering just how many lights you should add. If you add too many, it can be overpowering and detract from the ornaments, but if there are too few, then the tree can look bare, dark, and a lot less cheerful. So what is the right amount of lights? Keep reading to find out how many lights the experts use when decorating their Christmas trees.
A great rule of thumb to follow for lights has to do with the tree’s height. Obviously, you don’t want to put 1,000 lights on a 4-foot tall tree, because not only would it overwhelm the ornaments, it might blind anyone who looks at it. Similarly, just 500 lights on a 12- or 15-foot tree wouldn’t be nearly enough, and the finished tree would look sparse and not bright enough. That’s why most people follow the light/height ratio rule. For every one foot of tree, use about 100 lights. That means if you’ve got a Christmas tree that’s 12 feet tall, then you should plan on using about 1,200 mini tree lights.
There are a couple of things, however, to keep in mind with this rule. First is the type of light that you’re using. We just said to use 1,200 mini lights for a 12-foot tree, but what if you’re using another type of light, like a C7 or a C9 that has a much larger bulb? This will make an important difference, as these lights are bigger and brighter, and you don’t need as many. For instance, if you’re using C7 bulbs on your 12-foot tree, then you will only need about 200-300 lights to make your tree glow.
Another factor to consider is the string length and how far apart the bulbs are spaced on it. Christmas lights are packaged with the number of lights clearly stated on the box; for example, the package will say something like “100 LED lights.” What you need to look for, however, is how long the strand of lights is, because this will tell you how far apart the bulbs are spaced. Four inches is the most popular, because this puts lights close together with the wire itself being less visible. This is good for wrapping lights around the tree. If you want to wrap lights around individual branches, though, you might opt for bulbs with farther spacing, such as 6 inches. This will help ensure that the tree isn’t over-lighted.
Finally, use your best judgment with lights and how many you think is appropriate. All trees are different, with some being fuller and some being a bit thinner. If you put 1,200 lights on a tree with full branches, it’s going to look a lot different than 1,200 lights on a thinner tree. As you’re stringing the lights, stand back and take a good look at your tree several times to make sure you’re not putting on too many or too few lights. With the guidelines mentioned above and your own commonsense, you will end up with a tree with just the right amount of lights to make it sparkle all season long.