Best outdoor Christmas lights UK
Mains-powered LED strings that survive British weather — compared by the number that matters: pence per metre.
TL;DR
Best value: the Hopexy 30m at ~47p per metre — the longest run for the least money. Best known quantity: Ollny’s 20m warm white, the category’s bestseller for a reason.
The per-metre table
| Lights | Length | LEDs | ≈ per metre |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hopexy | 30m | 300 | 47p |
| Jsdoin | 20m | 200 | 51p |
| Ollny | 20m | 200 | 65p |
All three are mains-powered (no battery-swapping in December rain), IP44-class waterproof, and warm-white LED. Measure your run before buying — gutter + porch + one tree wrap eats 20 metres faster than you’d think, and joining two cheap strings usually beats one premium one.
Hopexy 30m / 300 LED
The longest run here at the lowest rate — 30 metres covers a terrace frontage or a serious tree wrap in one go, with remote control and 8 modes included.
£13.97Ollny 20m / 200 LED warm white
The safe pick with the review mountain behind it: reliable controller, proper warm white (not the cold blue-white cheap strings drift into), timer memory.
£12.99Jsdoin 20m / 200 LED
The price-leader for a single tree or window run — same length as the Ollny for a couple of pounds less when its price dips.
£10.19Prices update hourly from the Amazon API.
Frequently asked questions
How many metres of Christmas lights do I need?
Rough guide: 5m per 1ft of tree height for a full wrap (so ~30m for a 6ft tree), 15–20m for a gutter run on a typical terrace, 10m per window outline. Measure first — running short mid-job is the classic December mistake.
Can these lights stay out in the rain?
Yes — all our picks are IP44-rated for British weather. Keep the plug and controller under cover (a porch or a weatherproof box); it's the connections, not the string, that fail wet.
Are LED Christmas lights cheap to run?
Very — a 200-LED string draws around 6W, so under 2p for a 6-hour evening even at 27p/kWh. Running cost is no longer a reason to leave them off.
Warm white or multicoloured?
Warm white for elegant kerb appeal and property-listing looks; multicolour for family fun. Warm white holds its resale/reuse value across years — it never goes out of style.