C9 Christmas Lights

Christmas is coming soon and you will need to make sure all your decorating supplies are in order, including your C9 Christmas Lights! Do you have a string of these? If not, you need to get some for your outdoor holiday decorating! But, there are so many different sizes and colors to choose from, what’s the difference? We will go over the difference between the two common lights used – C9 and the C7 light bulb.

C9 Christmas lights are traditionally used outdoors. These light sets are heavy duty and weather resistant, so they are naturally made to stand the elements outdoors. The bulb size for this is about 2.5 inches tall and usually has an egg shaped bulb. They can be found almost in any retail store, but definitely right here.

The C7 light bulb is generally used for indoor decorations plus they are much smaller than the C9 light bulb. While it might be easy to confuse them, if you look at them together, you can tell the difference. Obviously they are not interchangeable. Here is a picture so you can tell the difference.

So where did the C9 light bulbs come from? Well, we can thank the great folks at General Electric. GE first designed these for outdoor decorating. They were first designed with a swirl pattern, but that was later replaced for the smooth look which was much more in demand. This light set uses the parallel circuit which means they all won’t go out if one goes out. Their popularity grew tremendously after World War II.

C9 lights come in many colors, including clear, opaque (ceramic), transparent (see-through), flashing and multi-colored which usually include red, blue, white, orange and green. While yellow is not included, it is a color you can purchase online.

Ceramic                                                        Transparent

The ceramic C9 light bulbs are preferred to the others because they give off a warm, soft glow versus the transparent where you can see the filament which can be hard on the eyes, but of course, since you will be using these outside, it probably won’t matter which bulb you decide to go with. Just one tip though; do not mix the ceramic and transparent bulbs since they will definitely clash like oil and vinegar. Using the colored bulbs on your outside decorations will certainly give you a very bright and cheerful display, but clear bulbs will also be nice if that is a theme you have going on outside. Another great feature is that you can alternate colors or set them up in a pattern based on your own preference. If you use the opaque bulbs, you can get pastel colors that aren’t usually available in the other styles.

C9 lights are a great choice for your outside decorating because unlike string lights for your tree where one light goes out, they all go out, these lights will not do that since they use a parallel circuit. If one light goes out, all the other lights will still stay lit. These light bulbs are also long-lasting and you can expect to get about 5 years out of each string so you won’t have to purchase replacement sets each year. This is what I call energy efficient and will save you money for sure! Each bulb burns at 7 watts and are really easy to see from a distance outside. Compared to using twinkle lights, these C9 lights will be very noticeable.

Another great feature of the C9 lights are that they have molded clips on each socket of each light so you can easily clip each bulb exactly where you want and it will stay put and not slide off a tree, bush or wherever you string them. Some of the most obvious places to put your C9 string lights are on bushes and trees and around buildings. The light strands will fit a tree that is fifteen feet tall or higher. You can line your front door or windows or porch with them. Dressing them up with a garland around the lights will certainly add some pizzazz to your decorating and won’t look so bare.

Each strand of C9 Lights usually comes with about 25 light bulbs and is 25 feet long, so each light bulb is spaced out by one foot and you can hook up one strand to another strand to get a total of 50 feet. 

If you are decorating a tree or bush and need to know how many lights you need, just multiply your length of the tree or bush times your width. But to be on the safe side, always buy one more strand than you think you will need. Even if you don’t use the extra strand, you may need to replace a burnt out bulb on a strand you are using, so you can easily do that with your extra strand.

And last word of caution – be careful not to use C9 outdoor Christmas light sets for indoor use as they are not cool burning and could potentially cause a fire hazard on a tree or other place you want to decorate. And always check to make sure your light set is UL listed. You definitely want to make sure this holiday season is fun and joyful, and decorating with GE C9 Christmas Lights will certainly help you on this journey!

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