A Winter Festival of Lights in Your Own Backyard
On long, dark nights we could all do with a bit more cheer. These homes show off their own well-lit winter wonderlands to brighten things up
I have a confession: I am a sucker for Christmas lights. The cheesier, the better. But with the festive season coinciding with the year’s shortest nights, there’s never enough time to enjoy the sparkling handiwork on houses and trees at that time of year. That’s why I’m delighted that we’ve created our own winter festivals of light to cheer up the gloomiest depths of winter.
We may not have the sophistication of Sydney’s Vivid, but the efforts in towns around New Zealand are shining the right lights (hello Coromandel’s Illume, Light Nelson, Wellington’s Lux, Christchurch’s Botanic D’Lights, Queenstown’s Luma Southern Lights) and, everywhere, the Matariki festival that marks the beginning of the Maori New Year.
Forget fat guys in red suits, sleigh bells and reindeer in mid-summer, and instead start the trend for a winter festival of lights in your own backyard.
We may not have the sophistication of Sydney’s Vivid, but the efforts in towns around New Zealand are shining the right lights (hello Coromandel’s Illume, Light Nelson, Wellington’s Lux, Christchurch’s Botanic D’Lights, Queenstown’s Luma Southern Lights) and, everywhere, the Matariki festival that marks the beginning of the Maori New Year.
Forget fat guys in red suits, sleigh bells and reindeer in mid-summer, and instead start the trend for a winter festival of lights in your own backyard.
This works in even the tiniest courtyard – imagine the delight from your neighbours in a shared townhouse or apartment block. Top it off with a winter garden party – think roasted marshmallows on the barbecue, hot toddies, outdoor gas heaters, and cosy blanket wraps.
10 good reasons to use outdoor lighting
10 good reasons to use outdoor lighting
Light up the garden with lanterns
If you’ve managed to slip away to a tropical holiday this winter, you can evoke the same resort magic at home. Line paths, patios and terraces with luminaria (real candles may not survive winter rains, so use battery fakes – no-one will know) to bring back memories of balmy evenings outdoors.
If you’ve managed to slip away to a tropical holiday this winter, you can evoke the same resort magic at home. Line paths, patios and terraces with luminaria (real candles may not survive winter rains, so use battery fakes – no-one will know) to bring back memories of balmy evenings outdoors.
Shine a spotlight or two
Not brave enough to light up the whole garden? Illuminated pots are standalone showstoppers.
Not brave enough to light up the whole garden? Illuminated pots are standalone showstoppers.
If you’d rather not go with lit pots, light them from the outside. The effect of bare winter plants or sculptural shapes makes a terrific display – who needs all that gaudy summer colour?
See more beautiful winter gardens
See more beautiful winter gardens
Add glowing globes
Sculptural lighting pieces in the garden provide more than just spot-lighting for the rest of the plants, they are a feature all on their own. Position them behind striking foliage to create intriguing patterns; the plaster wall reflects light back on the tree.
Sculptural lighting pieces in the garden provide more than just spot-lighting for the rest of the plants, they are a feature all on their own. Position them behind striking foliage to create intriguing patterns; the plaster wall reflects light back on the tree.
A parade of globes cheers up a winter garden when there are not many flowers on display. Look for weatherproof shades (rice paper won’t do) so the lights can last the winter.
Big box stores have great ranges of inexpensive outdoor garden lights. Look for solar-powered versions for ease of installation and zero running costs.
Be parent of the year (make that the decade)
Seriously, what kid wouldn’t love you forever if you lit up their tree house or climbing frame for the winter. You may never speak to them again from the exhaustion of the effort, but look. Just look.
Seriously, what kid wouldn’t love you forever if you lit up their tree house or climbing frame for the winter. You may never speak to them again from the exhaustion of the effort, but look. Just look.
Pave a pathway to heaven
Delicately lit trees with subtle path lighting woven between them are a magical way to entice people up the garden path on a cold winter’s night.
Delicately lit trees with subtle path lighting woven between them are a magical way to entice people up the garden path on a cold winter’s night.
As you do with an indoor lighting plan, think about what you want achieve with your outdoor lights: enough sensible lights on the path so people don’t trip, uplights positioned at prize trees or a garden sculpture (at an angle that doesn’t dazzle passers-by), and some cheeky twinkles of fairy lights just for fun, perhaps. Think about ambience as well as practicalities during the planning stage.
Browse outdoor lighting options
Browse outdoor lighting options
Use colour too – warm yellows and greens enhance the monochrome plants left in the garden at this time of year.
Garden Lighting By Design has created a display that would rock any neighbourhood – forget the Christmas crowds, people would drive past in droves to enjoy this mid-winter sight.
Let trees do the talking
Winter-bare branches make a far better canvas for spectacular lighting than the leafy ones of summer. Here, moody uplights create a spooky sculpture out of a bare Japanese maple.
Or consider wrapping an avenue of trees along your boundary or up your driveway with hundreds of fairy lights. Solar systems now are cheap and weather-proof so go berserk to create evening magic.
Winter-bare branches make a far better canvas for spectacular lighting than the leafy ones of summer. Here, moody uplights create a spooky sculpture out of a bare Japanese maple.
Or consider wrapping an avenue of trees along your boundary or up your driveway with hundreds of fairy lights. Solar systems now are cheap and weather-proof so go berserk to create evening magic.
Get really clever with our native tropical palms too. This display would be a crowd pleaser all year around.
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How have you enhanced your garden with outdoor lighting? Post a photo or tell us about it in the Comments below.
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How have you enhanced your garden with outdoor lighting? Post a photo or tell us about it in the Comments below.
MORE
See more stories on garden design
Strings of fairy lights are as cheap as chips at the big box stores (if you’re smart, you’ll have bought them for huge post-holiday discounts in January). Don’t wait until summer to string them on your patio, around potted plants and through the shrubbery – and switch them on as the sun goes down at 5pm to cheer folks going home in the dark.