In the Pressing Matter of Lights on Trees ...

[Dan Gould]

Maybe the question of Die Hard didn't excite too many people, but seeing the pic of the Alfredson's tree in the current Christmas thread, with its white lights, reminds me of this "other" important question of the holiday season.

I think when I was a kid I wanted colored lights but after I got older I realized that Mom was right: with the right ornaments on the tree, you need a neutral light to make everything sparkle with its own color. Way better. And glad my wife agreed, once I explained the concept. Too bad with a not-quite two year old puppy we're not putting up the tree until he mellows out some more or I'd post pictures.

So what about you?

[Scott Dolan]

Clear, and it isn’t even close. We decorate the hell out of the interior of our home. Some of our animated Christmas village pieces have multi-colored lights, but the tree, stairway railing, bay window in the kitchen, and 16ft red brick fireplace all have clear mostly intertwined with garland and ribbons. I think we put up a total of 1200 lights this year. We’ve started our transition to LED lights this year. 

[Big Beat Steve]

All I know is that THIS kind of Christmas tree "decoration" would make me feel freezin' icy cold in no time at all ...

http://www.shorpy.com/node/505?size=_original#caption

Different traditions, I guess ...

[paul secor]

2 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

All I know is that THIS kind of Christmas tree "decoration" would make me feel freezin' icy cold in no time at all ...

http://www.shorpy.com/node/505?size=_original#caption

Different traditions, I guess ...

That tree is frightening.

We have clear lights on our tree. As Dan said, they do "make everything sparkle with its own color".  
Before we met, my wife always had her tree decorated with blue and white decorations. So now. the compromise is one side of tree is decorated blue and white for her, and the other side is decorated with colorful decorations for me.

[JSngry]

Mixed.And bubble lights! We like color, contrast and motion to play off the fixed ornaments.

Frocked trees were big during my youth, you could even buy a vacuum cleaner attachment to spray them, but I can't recall the last time I've seen one.

[catesta]

We went back to color a few years ago with 50/50 mix of blinking and solid. On the exterior I have kick ass sets of multi-function LEDs that can do solid colors from white to green and all kinds of flash patterns. The big tree in front is done in the colors of the Italian flag.