6 Best Solar Christmas Lights of 2024, According to Testing

All the lights without the electricity bill spike!

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There's little debate that a house covered in glimmering lights during the holiday season is a joy to behold, but the festivity decor pulls a lot of power. A smart solution: solar Christmas lights, which rely on power generated from a solar panel placed in your yard or a sunny area in your home to absorb energy during the day and keep the lights going at night without extra electrical input.

At the Good Housekeeping Institute, we tested nine of the most popular solar Christmas lights in our Lab to find the best and brightest to deck out your home in style. During evaluations, we considered ease of setup, how intuitive the controls are and how durable they are, plus examined the lights under multiple lighting conditions to find the brightest, most appealing ones on the market.

✔️ Length: Typically, the longer the light string, the more LED bulbs per set. Shorter sets are great for trimming doors and windows, but if you're decorating trees or shrubs you may want to opt for the longest option available. Many brands sell multipacks of lights or several different length options.

✔️ Modes: While most solar lights have a similar number of modes, a few don't have as many options. If you want to really spice up your decorations, take a look at what flashing or pulsing modes are available. Some even have a built-in memory chip to remember your top preference even after the lights turn off.

✔️ Working time: This means how long the lights will stay on after a full charge. There's nothing worse than setting up great decorations only for them to turn off prematurely. Look for a working time of eight to 10 hours if you want them to last all night.

✔️ IP rating: Outdoor lights need to withstand the elements, and an IP rating will tell you how durable your lights will be in that regard. An IP rating is a professional standard that classifies how protected electrical equipment is from external waste — practically speaking, that means dirt and water. Each rating is read as IPXX, where the first "X" represents solids, and the second "X" represents liquids. The higher the number, the more resistant it is to that matter. The number for solids goes up to 6, and the number for liquids goes up to 9. Look for lights with IP ratings of IP65 for outdoor ruggedness designed to withstand winter weather.

The Dazzle Bright string light set topped our test, thanks to its brightness and how colorful it is. It comes with two adjustable solar panels that you can stake into the ground and two sets of string LED lights. Each string holds 120 multicolored lights on a flexible copper wire so you can adjust the shape to your choosing. We especially like this set because the clear string was less noticeable, making the lights pop more.

The controls are located conveniently on the back of the solar panel. The mode button switches among eight different lighting variations including steady on, flashing, waving and more.

Our lead tester noted that it's important to remember to turn the panel on during the day to collect a charge, but the lights themselves automatically turn on and off depending on how much light they detect. For best results, be sure to place the solar panel with its light sensor in direct sunlight.

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While this set's price is actually higher than the price of our best overall choice, it's our best value pick because you get 400 LEDs as opposed to 120 for a greater total value (about 3 cents per bulb compared to the 5 cents of our top pick). You can also opt for a shorter 100-LED option that's 39 feet long, or you can go all out with the 300-LED option that's 105 feet long.

Each set of lights comes with a solar panel and a ground stake with controls located on the back of the solar panel. Once the solar panel is switched on, the charging begins. According to the brand, these lights take about six to eight hours to fully charge. Once fully juiced up, the light sensor determines when it's dark enough to automatically turn the lights on.

There are eight different lighting modes that flash in different ways to provide the aesthetic that you want. Our pros like that it has a memory function, so if you have it on a specific mode and turn it off, it will go back to that mode when it turns back on. While these lights aced our Lab tests, some at-home users say these lights aren't as bright as they had hoped, so if you're looking for something on the more intense side, opt for our top pick.

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Nothing screams holiday cheer like a house dressed up in dazzling snowflakes. These solar-powered string lights from Brightown are a highly versatile way to amp up your home's festiveness. They are available in three different colors (pure white, warm white and multicolor), as well as several lengths to ensure your desired area is showered in light. That said, we wished all the colors came in the different lengths available, so be sure to measure how much space you'll need to cover before selecting your color option.

Our pros also like these Brightown lights because of their IP65 rating, meaning they'll survive inclement weather — ideal for those in cold-weather climates. We also appreciate the ambience-based auto-light feature, which automatically shuts the lights on and off given the presence or absence of daylight. The eight different light strobe modes are a nice touch too.

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These Brightown LED string lights can be purchased in solid colors or multicolor, so they are a one-stop shop for all your decorating needs — they even have a Halloween-themed option. At lengths of 33 feet with 100 bulbs or 66 feet with 200 bulbs, they're ideal for smaller projects like outlining a doorway, as opposed to a full fence or a strip of landscaping.

With a claimed IP65 rating, they should, however, be capable of resisting impact from the elements like dirt and water. That means even when it rains or snows, these should still work well so long as there is sunlight to charge them — just make sure your solar panels aren't obscured by snow.

Click a button on the back of the solar panel to cycle through the eight different modes. The solar panel contains a light sensor, so your lights will automatically turn on once it gets dark. In our tests, we found these lights easy to operate, and they were able to provide ample brightness once charged. According to Brightown, the lights can work up to 10 hours after four to six hours of charging by sunlight.

These lights from Lalapao were a star in our in-Lab testing, since they are bright, resistant to going out when one bulb is damaged, and offer eight different lighting modes. They are available in multiple color variations, and at 72 feet long, they're sure to cover any big lighting project. You can also get a two-pack for more ambitious designs.

The brand claims these can work up to 10 hours or more when fully charged. When we tested, it took about one hour of sunlight before the lights would turn on. The auto-on feature means the lights turn on as soon as we switched the sunlight off in our test. The lights are IP65 rated so they are designed to be resistant against water and dirt. On the downside, some users complain about how prone to tangling the strands are.

This set of two solar-powered strands comes with two 72-foot strings, each equipped with 200 LED lights with a water-resistant rating of IP65. The included solar panels power up the lights after about eight hours of charging, and on a full charge, you should get around eight to 10 hours of light — plenty for a nighttime display.

We love that there are eight lighting modes (a built-in memory chip remembers your preference). The lights are available in cool or warm white, both of which are versatile enough to use year round for holiday or party decor. Unfortunately, each strand needs its own solar panel to work, so you can't connect multiple for grand displays. Instead, buy and use as many as you'd like independently.

At the Good Housekeeping Institute, we have a special room that we can program to display specific wavelengths of light. With this equipment, we are able to simulate a day of sunlight to effectively charge up solar-powered lights.

We then test the durability and strength of each set of string lights by removing and attempting to break the bulbs. We evaluate whether the lights would continue to work if a single bulb was broken, or if it would result in a loss of continuity.

If a light set has multiple modes, we test each one for brightness and consistency. All of this is done in a dark room after charging in order to get an idea of how bright these lights would be at nighttime and how effective their auto-on capabilities are.

Generally speaking, most solar Christmas lights are designed to function throughout the night without cause for concern. We tend to like units that have an auto-off feature so that the lights automatically turn off during the day.

Leaving lights running continuously over multiple days may increase the risk of fire hazard as the lights heat up, so it's best practice to turn off your lights, or use ones that automatically turn off, either in the presence of sunlight or via a timer.

Yes, solar Christmas lights can still illuminate after a cloudy day — though they may not operate at full capacity. On cloudy days, it takes more time for your lights to fully charge, so they may not get a full charge prior to nightfall and, therefore, may not last for as long as they would after a day of full sun.

Good Housekeeping Institute Test Engineer Alec Scherma is a mechanical engineer whose testing experience ranges from artificial Christmas trees to binoculars. He was the lead tester of solar Christmas lights to determine which picks in the crowded market will last the longest and light up your house the brightest.

Alec Scherma (he/him) is the Good Housekeeping Institute’s test engineer, where he helps to create and implement new product testing methodology across home, cooking and cleaning appliances, wellness, tech products and more. He graduated from Drexel University’s College of Engineering with a B.A. in mechanical engineering.

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