Warm White, Multicolor or Red and Green? Picking Colors for Your Christmas Lights

September 22nd, 2026

By Ben McBurney, It’s A Wonderful Light

Picking colors is the fun part, and every family seems to have an opinion. Most of the rooflines in the It’s A Wonderful Light gallery are warm white, with the color on the trees and shrubs. If you can’t decide, that’s an easy place to start.

Stone house with green and red roofline lights, wreaths on two gable peaks, and evergreens and shrubs netted in red and green lights — Red and green along the roofline, red on the evergreens and green on the shrubs.

Quick answers

Warm white suits brick, stone and painted siding. It’s the most common roofline in our gallery.
Red and green can alternate along the roofline or split between the house and the landscaping.
Multicolor looks best on trees and on houses with lots of rooflines and windows.
You see your colors on a mockup of your own house before anything is ordered.

Warm white

Warm white has the soft yellow glow of an old-fashioned bulb, the kind that makes a house look inviting from the street. It outlines the house and goes with lit garland and wreaths with red bows. You’ll see that look on a lot of the homes in our gallery. It’s a safe place to start.

Red and green

There are two ways to do it. The lights can alternate red and green along the roofline, like the house at the top of this page. Or you can put one color on the house and the other on the trees and shrubs. On the house below, the roofline and shrubs are green and the evergreens are red.

Brick house with green roofline lights, evergreens on both sides covered in red lights and shrubs in green lights — Green on the roofline and shrubs, red on the evergreens.

Multicolor

Multicolor is the string of lights a lot of us grew up with, and kids usually love it. It stands out most on trees and on houses with a lot of windows and rooflines to trace. On a plain roofline it can look busy, so another option is multicolor in the trees and white on the house.

Blue and white

Blue and white has a cold, wintry look. We like it along the eaves with warm white in the trees. It’s also a nice fit for families who celebrate Hanukkah.

A different color in every tree

If you want a lot of color without changing the house, put it in the trees. Each tree can get its own color.

Front yard trees wrapped in purple, green, white, blue and red lights in front of a house at night — Purple, green, white, blue and red, with one color per tree.

Orange and purple for October

Halloween displays use orange and purple. We put up Halloween lighting in October and swap in your Christmas colors when the month is over.

House with purple lights along the roofline and window frames and a tree in orange lights for Halloween — Purple on the house and orange in the tree.

See it on your house first

Send us a photo of your house and we’ll show you the colors on a mockup of your own home. The design is free, and the design page has the steps.

Four LED roofline bulbs in orange, purple, green and white — Roofline bulbs in orange, purple, green and white.

Whatever you choose, you’ll see it on your own house before anything goes up. Browse the gallery of past displays for more ideas, then call 630-201-9627 or use the contact page.