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Solar Christmas lights are a great way to decorate your home for the holiday season, and cut down your energy bill. Beyond the environmental benefits, they’re also extremely convenient and versatile, since you don’t need any electrical outlets! No more fumbling with extension cords, and outlet power splitters. In our extensive research, we found the best all-around solar Christmas lights. These elegant lights not only look great, but they’re also some of the best-reviewed string lights available online, and they come in a few different colors so you can match your particular holiday style.

When finding our picks for the top 10 solar Christmas lights, we looked at cost, customer reviews, and any unique features that set the lights apart from the others. All the lights below are well-priced, enjoy great reviews from actual customers, and are 100% waterproof. We’ve picked out 10 unique solar Christmas lights for every style – elegant, festive, fun, and just plain silly. Generally speaking, Christmas lights are purely decorative, not functional like flood or porch light, so you don’t need to worry about how much light they give off. Instead, just find some you like and go for it! Here’s a look at our top 10 picks for the best solar Christmas lights for 2021.

Top 10 Best Solar Christmas Lights for 2021


Solar Christmas Light Reviews

Now let’s dig in a little deeper to the lights on our list, starting with our pick for the best all-around solar Christmas light.

Windpnn Solar Star String Lights

Windpnn Solar Star String Lights

Our pick for best all-around solar Christmas lights are Windpnn’s Solar Star String Lights. Each string is 24 ½ feet and includes 50 LEDs, each encased within a 1.6” plastic star-shaped covering.

These lights are some of the best reviewed lights on our list, with users reporting excellent functionality and durability. Many say the lights are brighter than expected and safe to leave outside all year around without worry. And while they’re great for Christmas time, they certainly aren’t limited to the holidays. Buyers have used these lights to decorate backyards, country gates, and patios.

You can choose between warm white, cold white (really bluish-white), and multi-colored (red, green, yellow, and blue). The lights are spaced every 6” on the string, with 6 ½ feet between the solar panel and the first light. They include two working modes – steady and flashing – and everything is IP65 waterproof, so you can leave the lights outside year-round if you’d like.

The batteries need about 6 to 8 hours of full sun to fully charge and the lights last about 10 hours once the sun goes down – longer than most on our list.

Bottom Line: Windpnn’s Solar Star String Lights are beautiful to look at and actually provide useful light for a patio or backyard, with great reviews to boot. You can’t go wrong!

Learn More – Check Price on Amazon

Joomer 2 Pack Solar String Lights

Joomer 2 Pack Solar String Lights

Joomer’s Solar String Lights are the classic Christmas lights you remember so well from your childhood, just updated with green technology!

On top of the wonderful customer reviews, these lights also are a great deal – especially when you buy the 2-pack! Each 72-foot string includes 200 LEDs (for a total of 144 feet of 400 LEDs), with 6 feet between the solar panel and the first light.

If multi-colored lights are a bit too festive for you, Joomer also manufactures single-color options as well (blue, green, purple, red, white, and warm white), so take your pick. On the back of each solar panel, there’s an on/off button as well as a ‘mode’ button to switch between the eight different active modes (different varieties of flickering and blinking).

The lights are IP65 waterproof, so they’re safe to leave outside 24/7 and the solar panel rotates 90 degrees so you can angle it perfectly towards the sun for maximum energy production.

A handful of buyers have reported that the lights turn off when a car drives by, due to the sensitive light sensor inside. However, the majority of buyers love the lights’ extra-long length (again, 72 feet!) and report they are very bright.

Bottom Line: You’ll need to angle your solar panel so passing cars don’t turn off the lights indiscriminately, but otherwise these are the perfect traditional Christmas light – now powered by the sun instead of the utility!

Learn More – Check Price on Amazon

Ingree Snowflake Solar String Light

Ingree Snowflake Solar String Light

Gaudy or festive? We’ll let you decide. But honestly, it doesn’t even matter, because these snowflake-shaped lights are just fun.

The Ingree Snowflake Solar String Light 20-foot strand includes 30 LEDs in either white (more like bluish-white) or multiple colors (yellow, blue, green, and red). Like almost all the other lights on our list, the entire strand is IP65 waterproof, so you can leave them outside as long as you’d like. Each LED is spaced 6” from the next, with about 5 feet between the first LED and the solar panel.

The only downside we see? Ingree lights need 8 to 12 hours of full sun to charge the battery completely, which is much longer than the other lights on our list (most of which need between 4 and 6 hours) and longer than the entire length of a winter day in many areas. However, none of the buyers complained about poor charging, so it doesn’t seem much of an issue.

Once fully charged, the light will last about 8 to 12 hours before needing a recharge. Customers report that the lights work exactly as LEDs should, but don’t be surprised by the fixture’s small size, as the snowflakes are only about 1 ½ inches wide.

Bottom Line: Fun lights to brighten up your front yard, all for a very small investment. Just remember they’re pretty small, so you might want to buy a few strands to fill up space.

Learn More – Check Price on Amazon

Vmanoo Meteor Shower Lights

Vmanoo Meteor Shower Lights

If you’ve never been around meteor lights before, it’s a quite a sight to behold. The Vmanoo Meteor Shower Lights give the calming appearance of a meteor shower or gently falling snow – the perfect companion to a quiet winter night covered in snow. These lights are often used as icicle lights hanging from a rooftop.

These lights are more expensive than standard solar string lights like the Joomer lights above. But for those few extra dollars, you get the added functionality and durability.

Vmanoo’s lights include 8 foot-long tubes each filled with 36 LEDs (for a total of 288 LEDs per string). The lights come in four different color choices: white, warm white, blue, and multi-colored. They are also IP65 waterproof and so safe to leave outside. Vmanoo says it takes 6 to 8 hours of sunlight to fully charge the batteries, similar to other lights on our list, and that on a full battery charge the lights should last 8 to 12 hours.

The majority of customers absolutely love the quality of the lights, with one user reporting she purchased 16 at once without any issues – somewhat of a rarity with Amazon-sourced products.

With only 8 tubes per string, you’ll likely want to buy a few strands to really create a unique aesthetic, which adds additional cost to an option that is already more expensive than others on our list. Even still, Vmanoo’s lights are cheaper than other meteor lights around they have even better customer reviews, so we don’t hesitate to add them our list of the best solar Christmas lights.

Bottom Line: Vmanoo’s Meteor Show Lights will give your yard a serene, tranquil glow. And with the excellent customer reviews, you can rest assured your yard will have that calming glow for many seasons to come.

Learn More – Check Price on Amazon

Mpow Solar String Lights

Mpow Solar String Lights

If you’re looking to turn your yard into a winter fairy wonderland, you’ll certainly want some fairy lights and Mpow’s Solar String Lights are exactly what you’re looking for. These small strings of LEDs look great, have hundreds of fantastic reviews, and are pretty cheap too.

First things first, fairy lights aren’t meant to provide any useful light to brighten up your porch or patio table. Instead, they are 100% decorative. They add an extra je ne sais quoi to your yard, so when friends come to visit they don’t just say ‘Its nice back here’, but instead ‘Wow, pour me some more wine. I don’t ever want to leave this magical patio.’

Unlike typical Christmas lights that include replaceable bulbs and heavy wires, fairy lights are tiny LEDs spread on a thin, bendable copper wire. You can easily wrap them around your porch bannister, mailbox, or fence.

Mpow’s Solar String Lights come as a 2-pack, with 33 feet and 100 LEDs each. The lights are ‘warm white’ in color, so they aren’t bluish-white like some of the cheaper LEDs. The lights come with 8 working modes (again, mixes of blinks and flashing) and are IP64 waterproof, so you can leave them outside without worry. On a full charge, Mpow says the lights should last about 10 hours.

Customers report that Mpow provides fast, attentive customer service if something goes wrong and tjat the lights are durable and function well. In fact, they’re one of the best reviewed lights on our entire list!

Bottom Line: If you want to create an otherworldly aesthetic for when you’re enjoying your backyard fire pit on a cold night, Mpow’s fairy lights are the perfect choice.

Learn More – Check Price on Amazon

URPOWER 2-in-1 Solar Lights

URPOWER 2-in-1 Solar Lights

Tired of seeing the same old stringy Christmas lights each and every year? Tired of putting up your own Christmas lights in your front yard? Take the easy road this year with URPOWER’s 2-in-1 Solar Lights. While not Christmas lights per se, these little solar spotlights certainly add a festive spirit when bathing the front of your house in alternating green, red, blue, and yellow lights.

Both the spotlight and solar panel on each fixture can be rotated (90 degrees for the light, 180 degrees for the solar panel) for both perfect illumination as well as optimal charging.

Each light contains four bright LEDs for a total of 200 lumens, more than enough to coat a large section of your house in color. The lights last between 6 and 9 hours on a full battery, and it’ll take about 4 to 5 hours in the sun for a full charge – actually on the shorter end compared to the other lights on our list.

Customers almost universally love these lights, reporting they’re easy to assemble and that they’ll stay very bright long into the winter night.

Bottom Line: URPOWER’s solar spotlights will be the easiest Christmas decorating you’ll ever do. And with the excellent reviews, you’ll be able to skip the work year after year.

Learn More – Check Price on Amazon

ECOWHO Solar String Lights

ECOWHO Solar String Lights

Like the Windpnn string lights (our choice for best all-around solar Christmas light), ECOWHO’S Solar String Lights aren’t just a typical Christmas light. Each bulb is encased within a large plastic housing, giving a warm, homey look to your holiday decorations.

Similar to bistro lights you see in cafes and restaurant patios, each of ECOWHO’s 25-foot string lights includes 40 LEDs encased within a textured, bulbous plastic housing. Each light is fully waterproof and the battery lasts 8-10 hours on a full charge. A simple on/off switch allows the lights to turn on automatically at dusk, but there are no options for blinking or flashing.

Beyond Christmas decorations, buyers use these lights for gardens, summer parties, porches and decks. Users report the globes are well-built and sturdy, with a soft, pleasant illumination.

Bottom Line: ECOWHO’s Solar String Lights are a durable solar-powered version of the ubiquitous bistro lights, perfect to string up over a quaint garden on a warmer winter night.

Learn More – Check Price on Amazon

VMANOO Flower Blossom Solar Christmas String Lights

VMANOO Flower Blossom Solar Christmas String Lights

VMANOO advertises their Flower Blossom Lights as Christmas lights, but like the mopha lights above you can really uses the beautiful lights in any season.

This set comes with two 21-foot strings, each including 50 LEDs encased in cherry blossom-like flowers molded from a soft, flexible material. At night, as the sun goes down, your yard will literally transform into a floral wonderland in blue, warm white, white, purple, or multi-color.

Each flower is just under 1 ½ inches wide, with 6” between each light. Like most of the lights on this list, it takes about 6 hours to fully charge the lights, and the battery should last between 8 and 10 hours once the sun goes down.

One reviewer notes that the lights provide just enough brightness to move around, but not enough to read a book by. In other words, they’re perfect for setting the mood in your yard or porch, but you’ll need to pull out a strong light if you’re looking to actually do any detail-oriented activities.

Bottom Line: Vmanoo’s Flower Blossom Lights lend a simple, yet calming floral note to your holiday celebrations. And you can leave them up all year around too!

Learn More – Check Price on Amazon

SOCO Solar Rope Lights

SOCO Solar Rope Lights

Another staple of the Christmas light industry, the LED rope light is the ultimate in durable, long-lasting holiday lighting. SOCO’s solar rope light is no different. Each 33-foot strand comes with 100 LEDs encased inside the flexible ‘rope’ and you can choose between warm white, white, blue, and multi-colored, and there are 50-foot options available as well (but only in warm white and white).

Like the Mpower fairy lights above, SOCO’s rope lights include 8 different active modes (varying mixes of blinks, flashes, and flickers) and a simple on/off button. The whole kit is IP65 waterproof, so you can safely leave the entire string outside all year. Like almost all the lights on our list, charge time is 6 to 8 hours and the lights should last between 8 to 10 hours after the sun goes down.

These lights aren’t just relegated to the Christmas season. Buyers use them on their RVs, wrap them around poolside palm trees, and add them for general yard decoration as well. While a small minority of buyers did complain that the lights stopped working relatively quickly, those same buyers reported that the manufacturer took the initiative, reached out to them, and gave them refunds or new lighting. Proactive customer service? That’s a big plus in our book!

Bottom Line: A great little solar rope light backed up by excellent customer service.

Learn More – Check Price on Amazon

Mopha Outdoor Solar Garden Decorative Lights

mopha Outdoor Solar Garden Decorative Lights

If you’re looking for something strange or eye-catching to add to your yard, take a look at Mopha’s Solar Garden Decorative Lights. These octopus-like lights will certainly grab the attention of any guests walking to your front door, leaving them quite bemused.

Each of these yard anemones includes 105 LEDs spread across 10” copper wires sticking out from a single ground stake. Since the wires are made from copper like the fairy lights above, you can bend and move the wires in any shape you’d like, so let your mind wander and get creative for the holiday season.

The solar panel is attached to the bottom of the stake and the whole kit is IP65 waterproof, so you don’t need to worry about leaving it outside all year around. mopha says the battery will last about 10 hours on a full charge, which takes 4-6 hours in full sun.

Buyers say these lights are great quality and are always a huge hit with neighbors and children, as they add a certain whimsy to your yard. Beyond that, mopha’s customer service is also top-notch, with quick responses and easy help.

Bottom Line: If you’re looking to spice up your yard with something a little different, these decorative lights will certainly put a smile on your guests’ faces.

Learn More – Check Price on Amazon

What You Need to Know About Solar Christmas Lights

Overall, solar Christmas lights are simple and fun. You don’t need to be an electrician – or even a handy person in general – to take advantage of them! Here are just a couple tips to make sure you have a great experience.

Sunlight is key

You already knew this, but solar lights need sunlight! Most of the lights above need about 5 to 6 hours in full sun to completely charge the battery. As such, you’ll need to make sure your solar panel is getting as much sun as possible. Watch out for trees, houses, chimneys, bushes, and anything else that could shade the panel.

After staking the panel in the ground, take 10 seconds in the morning, noon, and afternoon to see if its being shaded by any nearby obstruction. If there is, just unstake the panel and move it somewhere else. Solar lights aren’t permanent and you don’t need to worry about extension cords, so you can move them as much as you want! If they don’t work in one area, just move the solar panel a few more feet  and try again.

Make sure they’re waterproof

If you’re installing solar lights outside, you’ll want to make sure they’re waterproof so they can withstand the cold winter snow, rain, and hail. The best solar lights (and almost all of the lights on our list above) are rated IP65, meaning they can withstand heavy rains and are safe to leave outdoors 24/7 all year around.

Some of the cheaper lights don’t advertise a rating, instead simply stating they are ‘waterproof’. That might be true, but without official testing and rating, you’ll want to at least read over customer reviews to see how durable they are.

Have Fun!

Don’t overthink it. It’s the holidays and you should be enjoying sipping eggnog with friends and family, not fussing over lighting. Christmas lights are all about personal taste, so if you’re happy, then those snowflake lights are the right ones for you!

Solar lights are a great way to light up the yard without all the hassle of running miles of extensions cords and finding outlets for each area of your yard.

Any of the solar string lights above let you spruce up your Christmas decorations with little impact on your wallet or the environment.

One last time, here’s our picks for the 10 best solar Christmas lights:

The 10 Best Solar Christmas Lights