Merry Christmas from Everyone at The Garden Lighting Shop!

We would like to wish all of our loyal customer a very happy and healthy Christmas and New year! From everyone at the Garden Lighting Shop.

Why do we put lights on Christmas trees?

December is here! It’s our favourite time of the year here at the Garden Lighting Shop! Snow on the ground, logs in the fire, and best of all – Christmas lights everywhere! Whether you’ve put yours up yet or not, the Christmas tree is probably the most quintessential aspects of the festive season.

Each year we all cut down a tree, (or grab it from the loft), and decorate it with lights, tinsel and decorations - but have you ever thought about how this tradition started?

Well people actually started lighting Christmas trees in the middle of the 17th century. Candles were attached to the end of tree branches with wax or pins and were adhered to the tree to represent shining stars. This tradition started in Germany and spread to Eastern Europe over the next two centuries. As you can imagine this was a serious fire hazard, so most people wouldn’t put their trees up until Christmas Eve, ensuring that they would only be up for a brief period of time while the tree was still fresh and less flammable.

The custom of putting strings of lights on trees began in 1882. Edward Johnson – an associate of Thomas Edison – wired red, white and blue bulbs together and placed them on an evergreen tree. In 1895, President Grover Cleveland followed suit and decorated a Christmas tree in the White House with stringed lights! The public took notice, and the tradition has been ever since.

Not surprisingly, it used to be extremely expensive to have a lit Christmas tree. Electricians would have sold bulbs for this purpose, but they would have needed to be wired together by a professional electrician, so only very affluent people would have had a lit tree.

These days’ festive holiday lights use LED (light-emitting diode) technology. These lights are far more efficient than incandescent lights and have a much longer life-span!

The Christmas tree: It’s long been a symbol of the holiday season. If you’re looking to decorate a tree outdoors this year, our beautiful festoons are a fantastic option. You really can enhance your festivities with our range, which are not only beautiful, but are safe to use and excellent value too! Take a look for yourself here. 

Create a winter wonderland with our Festoon harnesses

The nights are drawing in, the leaves are falling from the trees and soon autumn’s abundance of colour will fade to the greys and whites of winter. The colder months are a great time for cosying up on the sofa with a nice cup of something warm – but are also when lighting becomes more important!

Some people can forget about their gardens in the winter and we think it’s such a shame! During these colder months, when we celebrate Halloween, Bonfire Night, Christmas and New Year, your garden can be a massive part of your celebrations!

We think you should celebrate the turning of the seasons by lighting up your garden with subtle or spectacular lighting options! We can help you light up your winter wonderland for the autumn and winter months, because we think is a time to let your garden really shine (literally)!

Christmas especially is an extraordinary and magical time of year, and being around friends and family is one of the joys of the season. You can truly enhance your festivities with our range of outdoor Christmas lights! Safe to use, excellent value and beautifully effective, our Festoon Collection is second to none.

Whether snow is on the ground yet or not, you can give your visitors a wintry welcome by adorning your windows and doors, fences and trees, decking and porches, with these beautiful lights that offer all the shimmer and sparkle the festive season deserves!

  

See our stunning range of Festoon lighting to transform your garden this winter here.

Top garden lighting tips

We’re taking it back to basics with this month’s blog! Here are some of our top garden lighting tips to get you started with making your garden glow.

Bump up the romance

Our stunning festoon and hanging lighting can really bring your garden to life. It can create a romantic and peaceful ambiance and is rarely expensive to install. 

Layer your Light

To make your yard look as beautiful at night as it does during the day, landscape lighting is essential. Here at the Garden Lighting shop we'll show you how to combine ambient lighting with task lights for a beautiful look and security and safety. We can also give you advice on how to incorporate accent lighting such as spotlights, strip lights, leds, festoon lighting and water-feature lighting.

Light up your resources

Add some drama by spotlighting a tree or other garden focal point. Spotlights can really accentuate plants and tree trunks and can create a pleasing glow on other garden foliage in the evening.

Guide the Way

It’s a great idea to use garden lighting to lead guests to your home to your front door. A trail of lights set along the pathway can give a magical look. We recommend that you avoid placing the lights all in a straight line as this can create a bit of a runway effect. Remember t combine safety with attractiveness for all entry lighting - guide visitors to the front door with welcoming lights that sufficiently illuminate any stairs or other potential hazards.

I can’t find your house?

Use lighting to ensure that your house number or name is well lit at night time for both safety and practicality. It will be easy to find after dark by both visiting guests and emergency services.

Solar

Decorative solar-powered landscape lights require no wiring, making them super easy and safe to use and install. Simply place them in a sunny spot, and when the sun goes in, they will start to shine. We have a huge range here at the Garden Lighting shop and will of course advice you on selecting yours.

From pretty hanging lights to coloured LED lighting, we have it all at The Garden Lighting Shop and we are proud of our selection. We only sell brand new, high quality products direct from the manufacturer and all products offered on our website can be purchased directly from the site or by phoning us or if you wish you can send your orders by email, fax or letter. 

We know how to make your glow like it deserves to, so if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us for some advice. We are more than happy to help with all of your lighting needs! 

Illuminate your business with festoon lighting

The ambience and mood may not be the first thing that you consider when planning out the design of your business, however as one of the methods of enhancing the overall experience of your customers whether shopping, dining or negotiating, careful attention should be paid to these aspects.

By doing so you can ensure that any extensive planning that has gone into the rest of your design, layout or business is showcased and nurtured in the right way while guaranteeing maximum comfort for those spending time in your working areas.

Lighting is the perfect method of improving the atmosphere of your establishment. Paired with the right wall colours and in keeping with your designs, lighting can showcase your products and make customers want to spend more time in the comfort of your company’s building.

Restaurant lighting

A restaurant is the perfect example of how lighting can encourage relaxation and mood, setting the tone for how your customers should feel. While it should hold a practical solution for customers to be able to read menus and see what they are eating, the lighting’s design and implementation can make room for some wonderful opportunities for experimentation.

Careful attention should be made to placement and brightness and particular consideration should be given to the heights of your ceilings, colours of walls, flooring and upholstery as well as your furniture arrangement.

DON’T- Picking permanent lighting fixtures for your restaurant that highlights your table arrangement, when you plan to rearrange furniture in the future will not be beneficial or cost effective for your business.

Bright lighting is a practical solution if you have a darker decor or wish to highlight aspects of your room, however dimmer lighting is often favoured for its cosier and more intimate feel – whichever you opt for make sure that it is evenly distributed so that it will not highlight one customer over another or make them feel uncomfortable.

DO - Consider incorporating various types of lighting to highlight one area over another. If you have a bar, it is likely you will want this to be brighter than the table lighting so that your patrons can see what they are drinking and your staff can see the drinks that they are making.

Some restaurants are open throughout the day, and if yours is one of them, designing your room layout and decor is likely to be impacted by this. The sun is likely to be one of the biggest factors to consider when choosing lighting during the day so contemplate varied lighting solutions or lighting that has adjustments for dimness and brightness.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner all provoke different requirements for lighting intensities. While breakfast should be bright, lunch should be moderate, they say to boost fast turnover rates and dinner lighting should be dim with an intimate and leisurely feel. 

Think of the sun as your base light level and work up from that, combining a mixture or accent and feature lighting can provide visual interest as well enhance the decor of your room. Why not considered coloured bulbs, for extra interest?

DON’T – Overpowering a room with too many types of lighting can be overwhelming and off putting, your customers don’t want to go home with a headache so be experimental and stylish but reserved.

The use of LED lighting solutions is growing in popularity among restaurants, bars and shopping businesses, not only for their cost efficiency, using up to 90% less energy than normal bulbs but they are also available in various colours and can be used to create a variety of moods, adding luxury without the price tag. – Take a look at our range of LED lamps and light bulbs.

Festoon fun

Festoon harness lighting and rope lights come in a variety of styles, colours and lengths which boast versatility, practically and fun in a diverse range of applications. While decorative and malleable into any shape or design that is required, they also provide the perfect balance of ambience and mood which can particularly efficient in a restaurant or dining setting.

Although completely at home in the outdoors, our festoon lighting are becoming increasingly more popular in internal display and functional applications due to the encompassing affect that they have in the situations that they are used.

One of our more recent projects saw our 2330 series festoon harness lights (pictured above) installed in the Bar BBQ on Ice pop up restaurant offering a comprehensive lighting solution that was completely bespoke and tailored entirely to Alexander Waterworth Interior’s, who designed the layout, requirements. 

You can see from their application that these lights were both functional in the day and at night, without being too overbearing or dim and boasted the second purpose of decoration for added ambience. As the restaurant was a pop up shop, their temporary fixture allows them to be used again when the bar decides to relocate to a second location.

Now shortlisted for a major prize at the Restaurant and Bar Design Awards which are set to take place later this month, we think the bar and designer Alexander Waterworth have show just how applicable an  d attractive festoon lighting can be in a business environment –

We wish them luck!

The 2330 range

We think the attraction to the 2330 range possibly came from the tailor-made aspect which allows you to cater your festoon lighting to your individual requirements with a bespoke harness solution which is manufactured in the UK.

Made from a tough black PVC and a varied selection of lamp holders, a designer or business owner can choose the entire design to fit their specifications from deciding what distance from the power supply the lamps need to be right through to the individual spacing measurements between the lamps.

Choose between various lamp designs including the shatter-proof golf ball lamps, or Retro 40w lamps.

Indoor or outdoor?

Our NEW extended range of mains powered and low voltage festoon lighting solutions are perfect for outdoor functions or more permanent indoor fixtures wherever functional or decorative lighting is required.

If you are a domestic, commercial or public customer, and have a project that you think that our festoon lighting could be a part of then please get in contact with us today.