How much does it cost to run Christmas lights?
We've pre-filled typical Christmas lights below. Set your electricity rate and adjust the hours to match how you use yours — the cost updates instantly.
Typical power 200W
Usual range 10–500W
Category Lighting & small
Holiday light costs come down almost entirely to one choice: LED or old-style incandescent. A big LED display might draw only 20–50W total and cost a few dollars for the whole season. The same coverage in old incandescent bulbs can pull hundreds of watts and cost many times more.
After bulb type, it's just hours: a timer that runs the display in the evening rather than around the clock cuts the bill cleanly.
What drives the cost of running Christmas lights
- Bulb type is everything — incandescent strings use roughly 10× the watts of LEDs.
- How many strings and how big the display is.
- Hours per day — dusk-to-bedtime vs. left on all night and all day.
How to cut it
- Switch to LED strings — the savings pay for the lights within a season or two.
- Put the display on a timer or smart plug so it runs only in the evening.
- Skip the always-on daytime running; nobody sees lights at noon.