Blue Christmas Lights: How To Choose Blue Bulbs, Strings, Strobes, And Palettes
Blue is the color people remember. A yard lit in blue and cool white reads as crisp and wintry from the street, and blue mixed with teal or purple looks like nothing else on the block. Blue also behaves differently from every other Christmas color once it is up, so choosing the right blue product for each part of your display matters more than it does with warm white.
This guide covers how blue light reads at night, which lens styles and effects to use where, the color palettes that pair best with blue, and how to work out quantities before you order. To browse everything in one place, start with our blue Christmas lights collection.
Why Blue Lights Need A Little More Planning
The human eye is less sensitive to deep blue than it is to white, yellow, or green light. In practice that means a blue display looks darker and moodier from across the street than a white display with the same number of lights. That is part of the appeal, but it changes how you plan:
- Use tighter spacing where you want impact. On tree trunks and branches, wrap blue strings a little closer together than you would with white.
- Add a bright accent. A few cool white strings, or a blend that includes cool white, keeps a blue display from going flat in photos.
- Let the bulbs do the outlining. Larger C9 and C7 retrofit bulbs carry blue much farther than mini lights, so use them on the architecture and save the strings for landscaping.
Blue C9 And C7 Bulbs For Rooflines And Outlines
For rooflines, gutters, and ridgelines, use retrofit bulbs in a socket stringer. The C9 Blue Faceted ProCore® LED Christmas Light Bulbs use an E17 base, draw 0.84 watts per bulb, and have a nearly indestructible polycarbonate lens on a nickel-plated base. They are dimmable, IP67 rated, come in packs of 25, and are backed by a 3-Season Reindeer Proof™ Warranty. If you prefer a softer, more even glow, the C9 Blue Smooth ProCore® bulbs use the same base.
The smaller C7 Blue Faceted ProCore® bulbs (E12 base, 0.8 watts) are the better fit for windows, doorways, and trees you view up close. Match the bulb to the stringer: C9 bulbs need a C9 stringer and C7 bulbs need a C7 stringer.
Bulb Packs Or A Complete Set?
Bulb packs do not include a stringer, which lets you build runs to any length with a stringer from our C9 stringer collection. If a 25-foot run is all you need, the C9 Blue Faceted ProCore® String Light Set is a complete set that includes 25 bulbs and a 25-socket stringer at 12" spacing, and up to 40 sets connect end to end.
Blue Mini Light Strings For Trees, Railings, And Wreaths
Mini light strings have the lens styles sealed onto the wire, which makes them the right choice for wrapping trunks and branches, porch railings, wreaths, and garland. Our blue strings have single-molded, sealed sockets, 4" spacing, green wire, stackable male and female plugs, an IP44 rating, and a 3-Season warranty. If one light goes out, the rest stay lit.
| String | Lens Look | Lit Length | Max End To End |
|---|---|---|---|
| 70 5mm Blue | Wide-angle dome, bright and even | 23 ft | 45 strings |
| 100 5mm Blue | Wide-angle dome, bright and even | 33 ft | 27 strings |
| 100 M5 Blue | Elongated faceted lens | 33 ft | 27 strings |
| 70 C6 Blue | Strawberry-shaped faceted lens | 23 ft | 45 strings |
For tree trunks, the 5mm strings are the workhorse; the 70-light version draws just 4.8 watts per string. The M5 and C6 lens styles throw a fuller point of light, which helps blue hold its own on a tree viewed from the sidewalk. One reminder: mini light strings are a landscape product, not a roofline product, so keep them on trees, shrubs, railings, and greenery.
Blue Palettes That Work
Solid blue is striking, but most of the blue displays that get people talking pair blue with one or two other colors. These are the combinations we see work best.
Blue And Cool White
The icy look. Cool white (6400K) has a crisp, slightly bluish edge that sits naturally next to blue. Outline the house in cool white C9s and wrap the trees in blue, or use a string that does the mixing for you. The 50 5mm ColorCraft® Arctic string blends teal, blue, and cool white on one string at 6" spacing (24.5 ft lit, up to 45 strings end to end). For a second blue-and-white texture, the 70 5mm Blue and Cool White string mixes the two colors at 4" spacing. You can see the full range in our blue and white Christmas lights collection.
Blue, Teal, And Purple
The 50 5mm ColorCraft® Stardust string blends teal, blue, and purple on one 24.5-foot string. It is one of the most distinctive palettes we carry, and it looks especially good wrapped tightly on evergreens and shrubs where the colors can mingle. Browse the rest of the unique color palettes in the ColorCraft® collection, or read our ColorCraft® buyers guide.
Red, White, And Blue
Blue also anchors patriotic displays. The 50 5mm Red, Cool White, and Blue SuperSpark® strobe string mixes all three colors with every bulb strobing, so it does double duty for Christmas sparkle and Fourth of July.
For more pairing ideas, see our guide to Christmas light color combinations.
Blue Strobes For Serious Sparkle
Strobes are extremely flashy, and blue strobes are about as attention-grabbing as Christmas lights get. Use them on purpose, usually mixed into a steady display.
- C9 Blue SuperSpark® LED Strobe Bulb: screws into any C9 (E17) socket and fires 40 to 180 random flashes per minute from 8 SMD LED chips. It is sold individually, so you can drop a strobe into every fourth or fifth socket of a steady blue or cool white run, or fill an entire stringer on a large tree. It is not dimmable and is backed by a 1-Season warranty.
- 50 5mm Blue SuperSpark® strobe string: every lens strobes independently and randomly at 6" spacing. Wrap it over a steady blue string on a tree for a dense, rapid sparkle.
- 50 5mm Blue and Cool White Dazzle™ string: the blue stays steady and every fourth light strobes cool white, which gives you sparkle and steady color from one string.
Our Christmas strobe lights guide explains how each effect behaves, and the 5mm strobe collection has every color.
Blue Net Lights For Shrubs And Hedges
Net lights are the fastest way to cover a shrub evenly. All of our 4' x 6' nets have 100 5mm lights on a 6" x 4" grid, draw 12 watts, are IP44 rated, and connect up to 18 nets end to end. Blue is available three ways:
- Blue LED net lights for steady, solid color.
- Blue DreamSpark® smooth fade net lights, where each light fades in and out at its own random pace.
- Arctic and Stardust DreamSpark® nets that match the ColorCraft® strings above.
Our net lights buying guide covers sizing and how many nets a hedge needs.
How Many Blue Lights Do You Need?
- Rooflines: measure every run in feet. With 12" socket spacing, you need roughly one C9 bulb per foot, so a 60-foot roofline takes about 60 bulbs (three packs of 25 with some to spare).
- Tree trunks: a 70-light 5mm string covers 23 feet of wire. Spiral it up the trunk a little tighter than you would with white so the blue reads from the street.
- Shrubs: one 4' x 6' net covers a shrub about that size. Larger hedges take nets side by side.
- Strobes: start with one C9 strobe for every four or five steady bulbs and add more if you want more sparkle.
Keep each run within the end-to-end limit printed on the product page, and plug into a GFCI-protected outdoor outlet. Our team decorates rooflines, trees, homes, businesses, and some of the largest Christmas displays in the world, so if you are unsure about a layout, email help@thechristmaslightemporium.com and we will help you plan it.
Plan Your Blue Display
Pick bulbs for the house, strings for the trees, nets for the shrubs, and one accent color to keep the blue from going flat. If you are comparing whites to pair with your blue, read warm white vs. pure white vs. cool white, and if red is also on your list, our red Christmas lights buying guide follows the same approach. Then head to the blue Christmas lights collection and start building your list for the decorating season.
