Merry and bright: these 9 sets are the best Christmas lights of the 2023 holiday season

Price: $7

Sometimes the best product is the simplest. These mini Christmas lights from Target are a comforting warm white and would work fabulously wrapped around a banister or even around your tree. For $7, buy a bunch and experiment!

Price: $44.95

These CB2 string lights are an elevated version of the ones from Target, complete with 60 textured plastic bulbs.

Price: $89

Especially around the holidays, curtain lights can make such excellent wall decor! Use this Pottery Barn set during a party for a festive and illuminating touch.

Price: $29

Suitable for indoor and outdoor use, these micro string lights can be draped, wrapped, or hung around your favorite garland.

Price: $54

The beauty of net lights is not in their shine or their glow, but in their simplicity — toss a set of these babies over a bush or shrub in your front yard and call it a (festive) day.

Price: $46.99

Turn any tree into one covered in icicles (even in warmer temperatures) with meteor lights, whimsical, classy, and different than your average holiday lights all at once.

Price: $24.98

Alternatively, if you'd like the icicle look but a bit more subtle and for, say, your front porch, a set like these from Home Depot would easily do the trick.

Price: $50

If you're looking for a basic light strand for outside the home, try these multi-color outdoor string lights from Lights.com. Not only are they heavy-duty and weather-resistant, they also come with 10 different light effects so you can control the speed, rhythm, and sequence of the twinkling.

Price: $15.97

And if the alternative Christmas lights have piqued your interest, maybe hang a few of these starbursts from the your front porch, back porch, or that large-but-underwhelming tree in your yard.