Driveway Christmas Lights: Ideas For The Entrance, Edges, And Trees

Your driveway is the welcome mat for your whole display. It is the path guests follow from the street to your door, the view neighbors get as they drive past, and the first thing you see when you pull in after a long day. Lighting it turns a dark stretch of concrete or gravel into a lit entrance that leads the eye straight to the house.

A great driveway display is more than a row of lights along the edge. It starts at the entrance, follows the drive with a clean line, lifts the trees and shrubs beside it, and can even add a bit of motion. Here are ideas for each part, plus three plans and the power tips that keep it all running.

Start At The Entrance

The spot where your driveway meets the street sets the tone, so give it the most attention.

• Pillars and posts: if your drive has brick or stone pillars, wrap them in light strings from bottom to top, keeping the spacing between wraps even. A pair of glowing pillars reads as a front gate even when there is no gate.
• Gates: outline the top rail of a driveway gate with C7 or C9 bulbs on a stringer so the shape shows from the road. Our Christmas lights on a fence guide has attachment ideas that work for gates, too.
• The mailbox: a light string spiraled up the post and around the box is a small detail that people notice, and it marks your driveway clearly for guests arriving after dark.
• Entry shrubs: a pair of shrubs on either side of the entrance covered in 5mm 4' x 6' Warm White LED Net Lights frames the opening. Each net holds 100 lights on a 6" x 4" grid, draws 12 watts, and has a 24" lead.

Line The Edges

A row of bulbs along each side of the drive is the backbone of the look. Use C9 or C7 bulbs screwed into a stringer, with each socket held upright by a ground stake.

• Stakes: the 5" Lawn Speed Stake, pack of 25 drives straight into the ground and holds a C7 or C9 socket upright at a low, clean height. It is made from glass-filled nylon that stands up to most soil types.
• Stringers: a 25' C9 stringer with 25 sockets on 12" spacing has male and female plugs, so you can connect as many as your drive needs. For a driveway, many people place a stake at every socket or every other socket.
• Bulbs: C9 Warm White Faceted ProCore® LED Christmas Light Bulbs sparkle from the street, and C9 Multicolor Faceted ProCore® bulbs give a cheerful, classic look. Both draw 0.84 watts per bulb.

C9 bulbs suit a long or wide driveway viewed from the street. For a short drive or a walkway beside it, C7 bulbs keep the scale right. Our guide to outlining walkways and driveways with C7 and C9 stakes covers spacing, ordering math, curves, and slopes in detail.

Keep the line set back a few inches from the edge of the pavement so tires and snow shovels miss it, and keep the stakes in a straight line by running a string line before you start.

Light The Trees Along The Drive

Trees beside a driveway add height, and they are what turns a lit border into a scene. Even two or three wrapped trunks make a long drive feel like an avenue.

• Wrap the trunks: spiral light strings up each trunk with tight, even spacing, about 4" to 6" between wraps. 70 5mm Warm White DreamSpark® Slow Fade LED Christmas Lights fade each light slowly and randomly, which gives trunks a soft, living glow. Each string covers 23 feet of lit length, draws 4.8 watts, and connects up to 45 strings end to end.
• Light the branches: on smaller ornamental trees, wrap the main branches, too. Wrapped branches glow against the night sky and pull the eye upward.
• Repeat the rhythm: light every tree along the drive the same way. Matching trunks spaced down the drive look intentional, while one random tree looks like an afterthought.

Our guide to wrapping trees with Christmas lights walks through the technique, and the best lights for outdoor tree trunks are all in one place. For shrubs along the drive, see how to light bushes and shrubs with net lights.

Add Motion Down The Drive

A driveway is long and straight, which makes it a natural place for a little movement. A chase controller switches whole light strings on and off in sequence. If you divide each edge of the drive into separate sections, with each section on its own stringer, the sections can light one after another from the street toward the house.

• The 4 Channel Chase Controller with Push Button runs four sections through 8 built-in patterns. It handles up to 1.25 amps per channel, is weatherproof, and remembers your last pattern when power cycles.
• For a longer drive, the GFade 8 Channel Fully Programmable Christmas Light Chase Controller runs up to eight sections, handles up to 8 amps per channel, and is configured over WiFi from a web browser, so you can build your own patterns. Multiple GFade controllers can be synchronized when you want more channels.

Keep the motion slow and subtle along a driveway. A gentle sweep toward the house looks welcoming, while a fast flash can be distracting to drivers. Our Christmas light chase controllers guide compares every controller we carry, and our guide to designing motion into a display has more ideas.

Three Driveway Plans

The Classic Warm Welcome

Warm white C9 faceted bulbs on stakes along both edges, warm white net lights on the entry shrubs, and every trunk along the drive wrapped in warm white DreamSpark® strings. It is timeless and works with any home.

The Nostalgic Multicolor Drive

Multicolor C9 bulbs along both edges, a mailbox post wrapped in a multicolor string, and trees wrapped in warm white so the colored border stands out. It feels like the neighborhood displays many of us grew up with.

The Grand Approach

Wrapped stone pillars and a gate outlined in C9 bulbs at the entrance, staked C9 edges divided into eight sections running on a GFade 8 controller, and wrapped trees down the full length of the drive. This plan suits long driveways and homes set far back from the road.

Power Tips For A Long Driveway

• Plan power on each side. Do not lay cords across the driving surface. Feed each side of the drive from its own outlet, or route power around the end of the drive.
• Start near the outlet. Begin each run at the end of the drive closest to power so the lights, not extension cords, cover the distance.
• Keep connections off the ground. Lift plug connections out of puddles and snowmelt, and point them downward with a drip loop.
• Automate it. A 2 Outlet 15 Amp Outdoor Photocell Timer turns the driveway on at dusk and off after 2, 4, 6, or 8 hours. It has two grounded outlets and handles up to 15 amps.

LED keeps the load light. A 100 foot run of C9 bulbs on 12" spacing draws about 84 watts. Our guide to how many Christmas lights you can run on one circuit covers the math for bigger displays.

Light The Way Home

Every product in this guide is UL Listed and rated for indoor and outdoor use. Our team decorates rooflines, trees, homes, businesses, and some of the largest Christmas displays in the world, so the advice is based on decades of experience and practical application. If you would like help planning your driveway display, email help@thechristmaslightemporium.com and we will help you put together your list.