Warm White or Multicolor Christmas Lights?

Choose the feeling, not the bulb. Warm white is candlelight: calm, elegant, a house that glows from within, and it flatters brick, stone and painted wood. Multicolor is childhood: joyful, nostalgic, the Christmas you remember from the back seat of the car. If you cannot decide, you may not have to. Warm white on the house with multicolor in the trees gives you both.

It sounds like a question about bulbs. It is really a question about the evening you are picturing.

What feeling does warm white create?

Quiet, and grown-up in the good sense.

Warm white sits close to the color of a flame, so a house lit in it looks lit from inside, as though every window and every roofline is giving off the same soft glow. It is the color of a dinner party, of guests arriving in coats, of a front door with a wreath on it and the porch light on. It reads as considered rather than loud.

It also does something kind to materials. Brick, limestone, Austin stone and painted wood all carry warm tones, and warm white sits inside that range instead of fighting it. The house looks richer than it does in daylight. That is why it suits traditional homes so well, and why a whole street lit in warm white can look like one composition.

What feeling does multicolor create?

Joy, without apology.

Multicolor is the Christmas of a lot of our own memories: the drive around the neighborhood to look at lights, the house on the corner that everyone slowed down for, every color at once glowing against a cold sky. It is playful and unpretentious, and it is the scheme that brings children to the window.

On a family home where the audience is partly small and partly sentimental, multicolor is not the less sophisticated choice. It is the honest one. It says this house celebrates Christmas, and everybody is welcome to enjoy it.

Can you use both on one property?

Yes, and the photo above is the clearest example we have.

At the Villages of Runyon Springs entrance in Dallas, the stone monument and the sign are outlined in warm white, and the evergreen trees on either side carry multicolor mini lights. The sign stays legible and dignified, because warm white lets the lettering and the stone read. The trees are pure celebration. Neither color is fighting the other, because each one has its own job.

That arrangement translates directly to a home. Keep the architecture in warm white: rooflines, gables, windows, arches. Put multicolor where things are soft and organic: evergreens, shrubs, a small tree near the door, a wreath. The house stays composed, and the yard feels festive.

What tends not to work is mixing the two on the same element, such as a roofline that switches from warm white to multicolor halfway across. The eye reads that as a mistake rather than a choice.

Where does cool white fit in?

It is the third option, and it suits a different kind of house.

Cool white is crisp and bright, closer to moonlight or snow than to candlelight. It holds a hard edge against white trim, gray stone, black window frames and modern glass. On a contemporary home, warm white can look a little soft; cool white keeps the lines sharp.

If your house is modern and you love the energy of multicolor, the same split works: cool white on the architecture, multicolor in the trees. If you love the classic look but your house is all white stucco and black steel, cool white may give you the elegance you were picturing from warm white. Our longer guide on how to choose holiday light colors walks through each material.

The full list is warm white, cool white, multicolor, candy cane in red and cool white, and candy cane in red and warm white. Several more colors and custom combinations are available on request.

How do you decide without seeing it lit?

By seeing it drawn on your own house first.

During the consultation we design from your photos plus satellite and street views, and we draw the scheme on a photo of your home. If you are torn, ask to see it both ways. It is much easier to choose between two pictures of your own front yard than between two adjectives.

Then, before you commit, picture one specific moment. Your family pulling into the driveway on Christmas Eve. Friends walking up the path for dinner. Your kids at the window. Whichever color makes that moment feel right is your answer.

What if you change your mind next year?

Then change it. You can change your color scheme every year at no charge, as long as the design itself — what is lit and where — stays the same. Warm white this year, multicolor next, and the same carefully fitted design underneath both.

Request a design consultation and we will draw your home in the scheme you are leaning toward. To see warm white and multicolor working together in person, look at the Villages of Runyon project.