Which Color Lights Are Supreme?

When the Holiday season rolls around, the mood becomes festive and full of merry cheer. The radios start their holly and jolly Christmas music, overflowing every person’s soul with a signature blend of nostalgia and loathing. My family, like many others, usually commemorate this change in spirit through one tried and true ritual: putting up the Christmas tree. Now this opening alone could muster up some pretty heated debates, like whether to use real or fake trees, or what is actually the right time to start playing Jingle Bells on your local channel. But today I am looking past all that surface level conversation and into the sometimes overlooked debate, the ones happening within the confines of our own, individual families every November: what color lights should I use?

Part 1: The Vibes

After some quick research on several informal articles and Reddit threads, I came to the conclusion that white lights usually invoke a calm, peaceful aura, one that is similar to the warm sensations of cream colored clothing or the yellowish lights that are used for studying. Usually very professional and aesthetic, this is more common in families without children who are trying to invoke an elegant and fashionable look. On the contrary, colorful lights are nostalgic and playful, capturing the festive atmosphere that many are seeking. Kids and adults enjoy the light and energetic feeling that radiates from these vibrant trees. No matter what one’s age is, the tree will immediately bring them back to their youth, sparking a special sensation in the mind that somehow nothing else can tap into. White and colorful lights both have their strengths and weaknesses, but we aren’t here to consolidate these two colors; our mission is to truly answer these questions, using real statistics and polls, and crown a certain color superior.

Part 2: Crunching the Numbers

Well, if you want the easy answer, I won’t make you wait. According to a poll by a radio station in New Jersey, around 62 percent of respondents prefer to use colored lights over white lights, with only 31.5 percent saying they like white. But as we start to peel back the logic over these answers in these circumstances, you will see that the solution isn’t as clear cut as it looks. Another poll conducted by the Home Depot showed a map of America and a color assigned to each region, with one meaning people there preferred colored lights, and the other preferring white lights. According to the poll, if you draw a line from east texas to maine, people to the right of that line would prefer white lights, with the other side opting for the more festive vibes. Interestingly though, the radio station’s results were the exact opposite, with more multicolored votes compared to the other poll There are a few possible explanations for this. The most important one is sample type. Intuitively, people that enjoy social communication and have a large online presence might like the colored lights better, because it fits their energetic and extroverted personality. The Home Depot, which gets its information from the amount of sales received, is likely to be more accurate because everybody getting lights will need to buy it from a store, with this one taking a large share of all the purchases. A reason for the east coast of America buying more white would be the more traditional influences of this region compared to the West, which is, in many ways, more modern and niche. Another reason could be that the East receives far more snow than the west, with the white being a wonderful compliment to the natural white of snow.

Part 3: My Advice

I currently live in Washington. If you do not, please email me and I would be very grateful for your interest! It rains a lot and, at least for this calendar year, it will not snow. This effectively rules out buying white for that purpose. I understand that white seems more mature and elegant, but this, at least in my opinion, ruins the underlying purpose of what Christmas is all about. It is about all our friends and family forgetting about our problems for a week and spending quality, merry time together. The colorful lights fit that description perfectly. However, compromises can be made. For example, my family has one of those artificial Christmas trees, so we can completely decide what color lights to install. Since my mother prefers white and the rest of us want colored, we decided to set the tree to one flash of white, followed by a flash of color. This keeps the whole family together and at least postpones the fighting. In conclusion, the decision is completely up to you, but if you are reading to decide my advice, I would go 100 percent colored. It fits the vibe of Christmas and is geographically trendy. I hope this made you change your lights at home but no matter what, have a blessed christmas!