Garden Christmas Lights – Water and light are a magical combination and at Christmas night can provide extra glitter and sparkle. Use wide and narrow beam spotlights on fountains and moving water. When lighting a pond make sure that the source of the light is not reflected in it, which would diminish the mystery.
The texture and shape of tree trunks, branches and leaves provide endless opportunities for decorative lighting. Use tungsten halogen flood spotlights, positioned to shine upwards into the branches from a garden wall or a lower part of the trunk.
You can fix a light fitting at the center of the tree to create a soft glow. Strings of fairy lights strung through the branches give a magical effect, particularly if the bulbs are all white. Make sure you use lights designed for outdoor use.
Bulb holders on this sort of lighting should be molded on to the cable; the type with sharp contacts that bite through the insulation of the cable to make connection with the cores are extremely dangerous if used outside.
As with all other elements of the Christmas garden’s design, the light fittings themselves should be in keeping with the garden’s style. There are many good-looking functional fittings available, made of high-grade materials to resist corrosion and sealed against the weather. They are therefore not cheap.
Several designs will hold energy-efficient, compact fluorescent bulbs and any fitting designed to use standard light bulbs could take one of these. Several low-level light sources are more pleasing than a few very bright ones but it does mean that the cost can quickly mount up.
