Unpacking the Best Outdoor Light Timers for Christmas

Timers are an essential way to maintain your sanity when running any successful Christmas light display.

I know, because growing up, I was the one tasked with manually plugging in each strand of my dad’s beloved, elaborate tangle of cords and cables every night. I was a kid, and I loved my dad’s truly stunning light displays, but it was definitely a drag to run around the house jamming 15 different plugs into their respective outlets every night—not to mention the times that I forgot to do the task altogether and the lights, sadly, went dormant for a night. Ever a traditionalist, I don’t think my dad stopped doing it manually until a couple of years ago.

There are plenty of reasons to invest in a solid Christmas light timer: it requires little to no daily effort from you to keep your display shining consistently, they can operate when you’re not around if you want, and they help reduce the costs of running the lights in the wee hours of the night when they don’t need to be on.

Timers are easier than ever to access and use in your display. But do a quick search and you’ll quickly be overwhelmed by the sheer number of options available. Here, we’ll delve into three of the most popular types of timers, and discuss a recommendation for each.

Types of Christmas Light Timers

Mechanical Christmas Light Timers: The Go-To No-Fuss Choice

Mechanical light timers are the simplest, and often the cheapest, option when it comes to setting up your display. All you do is plug in your lights, set the mechanical dial to your desired schedule, and you’re good to go.

What mechanical timers lack in features, they make up for in ease of use. Many of our readers who would prefer not to mess with an app or complicated widgets prefer a trusty mechanical timer. While they’re not what we usually go with, they’re a solid option if you’re looking to keep things straightforward.

Photocell Christmas Light Timers: One Step Up

Photocell timers respond to the level of ambient light to turn a circuit on and off. Simply plug your holiday lights into them, set them to automatically turn on at dusk, set an interval for when they should turn off, and you’ve got a perfect set-it-and-forget it option for the season.

But a good photocell timer won’t simply turn on at dusk and off at dawn. It should have a dial that allows you to set a predetermined amount of time for the lights to run, like four, six, or eight hours after they’re originally activated.

Photocell timers are inexpensive and dead simple to use. For a tried-and-true option, check out the 3-Outlet Photocell Ground Stake in our store. The stake makes it especially easy to set up in an inconspicuous spot, and its settings allow you to run your lights for two, four, six, or eight hours, or until dawn if that’s what you prefer.

Outdoor Smart Plugs for Christmas Lights: Intricate Control and Abundant Features

If you ask Consumer Reports, the best outdoor light timers are smart plugs. We agree. While they may be a bit more fiddly for our less tech-enthusiastic readers, smart plugs offer unparalleled customizability and hands-off specificity for your Christmas light display.

For example, the WiFi Smart App Controlled Timer available in our store is packed with features: it’s equipped with IP55 water resistance to stay strong during the icy winters, its outlets can each be controlled and activated independently, it has a built-in overcurrent protector and surge protector, and an ABS fireproof case to help eliminate power surges and overheating.

But most importantly, it allows you to control and set it using an app on your phone, your Amazon Alexa, or your Google Home. You can set multi-schedule timings, schedules that differ by the day, or set different “scenes” that activate according to your specifications. It even has an energy monitoring function to help keep that electric bill down.

Our smart plug is built for outdoor use, and we stand by it in our own applications. But of course, it’s not the only smart plug option. Check out Consumer Reports’ list of top-rated smart plugs for a few others to choose from.

Whatever option you select, we recommend learning its ins and outs, setting it and leaving it alone. That way, you won’t have to send your kid scrambling around the house, hunting for outlets in the dark every evening. You can rest easy knowing your display is ready to go, night after night!