Are you a Halloween fan looking to up the ante with your home’s decorations or find just the right finishing touches to take your Halloween night to the next level? Because no matter what kind of decor you like, or how much or how little you already have to work with, there’s one decoration that can make all the difference: outdoor Halloween lights.

Halloween lighting ideas: what options are there?

Let’s review the different lights you should consider for your front or backyard lights. Some are string lights, similar to Christmas lights (see the section below for more about these). However, others have variety and personality that might fit with the vibe you want for your overall decorations, and even some that are customizable.

Jack-O-Lanterns

You know about Jack-O-Lanterns, or carved pumpkins, and how these are traditionally lit from within with a candle or small light source. These are an excellent source of light with great ambience for Halloween, which means they’ve inspired many additional lighting options.

For example, if you don’t want to deal with the mess of actually carving a pumpkin and getting rid of it once it’s started to decay, you can find artificial pumpkin lights for your yard. Some of these will be trying to imitate carved pumpkins, probably as small, lantern-like lighting options, while others will just use the shape and color of the pumpkin as inspiration. For example, you might find flat, pumpkin-shaped wall lights, which can add a spot of color and illumination to the outer walls of your house.

On the other hand, you might also find Halloween string lights that are pumpkin or Jack-O-Lantern shaped, so you can display a whole field’s worth of tiny, glowing pumpkins around your roof or doorframe. Jack-O-Lantern-inspired string lights are an excellent choice if you’re going for a more nature-based Halloween theme, with scarecrows and a harvest festival feel to it, or if you’re trying for a cutesy “spooky” look.

Other shapes and kinds of lights

In addition to Jack-O-Lanterns, other shapes and designs of Halloween lights can also be found. These can range from hanging, battery-powered lights that decorate a single location to strings and curtains of lights that can cover a whole section of your home or yard.

No matter what Halloween style you’re trying for, you’ll find lights to match: you might have some that are shaped like a stereotypical “sheet ghost,” for instance, or a string of lights designed to look like glowing autumn leaves, or even Halloween string lights shaped like spiders, bats, or witches. For an even spookier look, try finding some candle-shaped lights or electric candles to set up in your windowsill or next to a doorway. (For an even more gothic look, consider faux torches or lanterns.)

Blow-up decor

These decorations are simple to set up and take down, don’t require much attention or maintenance, can go pretty much anywhere you want in your yard, and are almost always lit from within.

Like everything else Halloween, you can find lots of different “flavors” or styles of blow-up decorations. Many will cater more to the “cutesy” side of things, with happy-looking ghosts, witches, or other Halloween creatures, while other blow-up decorations will be more eerie, creating unsettling displays of giant snakes or much creepier ghosts. Some will even lean into the autumnal feel of Halloween, creating large decorative trees and pumpkins to finish out your home’s look with some easy-to-move decorations.

While you might not go for these if you want a serious, creepy vibe for your home, many Halloween decoration styles can benefit from adding in an inflatable friend or two. They’ll also add spots of interest and light to your home even when it’s dark outside.

Basic lights: what colors will work?

Basic lights without a fancy shape or design will probably come in a round or tear-drop shape. They can attach to your home, trees, bushes, porch rails, supporting beams, and anywhere else you might put Christmas lights. Straightforward string lights can make a big improvement on your home’s spooky or fun Halloween decor.

While Christmas string lights are quite common, Halloween string lights haven’t yet caught on quite as much, meaning that they will help your home stand out from the crowd or set the scene for a fun Halloween event.

If you’re looking for simple lights, you’ll probably want to focus more on the colors.

Halloween decorations have some typical colors that most decorators work with: orange and black are the most common, with maybe some green, purple, and/or white as an accent. Naturally, these same colors can work really well as Halloween lights outdoors or indoors. However, there are a couple of considerations you might want to consider when choosing colors for your decorative lights.

Orange

If you are going for a simple but still-festive look, a set of orange string lights is the easiest approach. A set of orange lights outside your house will be enough to work in some Halloween spirit easily, but they’re also a great addition to already-existing decorations, especially if you want to give some life to them with warm illumination.

Purple

For a little more variety, orange and purple lights together can look really great. Purple lights, either on their own or in conjunction with some orange, have a witchy or magical feel to them, so they’re also great for decorations themed around those seasonal ideas.

Other Colors

Add life to your decorations by choosing colors that complement what you already have, or go with colors that fit your theme. Green light is a great color for autumnal Halloween decor and fun, kid-friendly decorations. White light can be a nice accent color or the basis for many decorations, and could be creepy (like bones) or fun (like a friendly ghost). Aside from that, consider black lights, which will light up light-colored objects with an eerie glow.

Smart and adjustable lights at Jellyfish

Now let’s get into the really fun stuff: smart and adjustable lighting systems. These systems can change their display patterns, the colors of the lights, and when they’re on or off according to your directions, which means that just one light installation could create a festive mood for any holiday as soon as it comes around—there’s no need to switch out your lighting when you can just modify it.

One place where you can find adjustable outdoor lighting displays to change for new holidays is here at Jellyfish lighting. We offer permanent, energy-efficient LED lighting for your home; you can customize our lights to look however you want, with over 16 million color combinations. Among the many uses of Jellyfish lighting is this modifiable system, which can decorate your home for Halloween night lights, Christmas lights, or anything afterward or in between. With a light system like ours, you’ll have control over your lights and can change them to fit your mood or aesthetic at any time.