Fairy Lights, Christmas & Halloween Decorations

As a rough guide, a 6 to 7ft tree calls for somewhere around 15 to 20 metres of string lights, or roughly 600 to 900 bulbs. Cluster-style lights pack in tighter, so they need less length than a single long string to get the same full coverage, and keeping a spare set handy saves a scramble if one section burns out partway through.

IP44 means the fitting stands up to solid objects bigger than 1mm and splashing water from any direction, which makes it a good fit for a covered porch, patio or eaves rather than somewhere fully open to the elements. It's water-resistant rather than fully waterproof, so anything facing heavy rain or standing water needs a higher rating, like IP65, to really hold up.

That comes down to the batteries and how many hours they're running each day, though a set of 3 AA batteries usually sees somewhere between 18 and 50-odd hours of continuous use. A built in timer stretches that out further, since it limits the lights to a few hours a night instead of letting them run non-stop.

Mostly, with a handful of things worth keeping an eye on: string lights, cobwebs and small loose bits like rubber spiders can turn into a choking or entanglement risk if a pet starts playing with them, and any lit candles are better off well out of reach. Battery powered lights sidestep the open flame risk altogether, and keeping decorations up high or supervised handles most of what's left.