Light Up Your Home Like Clark Griswold’s House

Clark Griswold, the beloved character from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation movie, was determined to make his house the brightest in town. To achieve this goal, he went all out and put so many lights around the outside of his home that his house was so bright that it caused an area-wide power outage, leaving his entire neighbourhood without electricity!

This classic hilarious Christmas disaster movie has become a holiday favourite and inspired so many to get into the extreme spirit of Christmas by covering the outside of their houses with lights.

So just how many lights does Clark Griswold have on his house and how would you do it today with LED lighting?

How Many Lights Did Clark Griswold Put On His House?

Clark Griswold used 25,000 lights!

“250 strands of light, 100 individual bulbs per strand for a grand total of 25,000 imported Italian twinkle lights”, Clark declared with much pride after days of work installing the lighting, to only fail in turning them on at the hilarious family switching on event.

How Much Electricity Would the Griswold Christmas Lights Use?

Mrs. Griswold has aptly nicknamed her husband “Sparky” for his enthusiasm for all things DIY in lighting and for his annual holiday extravagance of stringing a whopping 250 strands of incandescent lights around the house.

In 1989 a 100-count strand typically consumes 40 Watts of energy; consequently, all these together require 10 kW (or 10,000 Watts) to create such an extreme display.

Today using LED lights Clark could expect to consume between 420 and 500 watts, a fraction of the energy so he could watch his electricity meter slow down considerably!

Create Clark Griswold’s House Using LED

Thankfully you can now create a display just as stunning as Clark Griswold’s without using so much electricity. LED lights are more efficient and use a fraction of the energy that incandescent does; on a 100-count strand, you’d only consume 5 Watts of energy!

If Clark used modern-day LED lights, he could use any of the following suggestions:

Svater 96Ft Outdoor String Lights

96ft in total, 2 x 48ft per strand, hanging string light with 2700K LED bulb emitting a soft warm white glow like it's incandescent predecessor.

Check the Price

LED Strand Lighting

Outdoor String Lights

A like-for-like Griswold replacement would be a set of LED hanging string lights that can be run in series to create long strands of waterproof dimmable 2700K warm white globes of light, just like incandescent lighting was.

Linkable up to 40 strands, with 30 LED bulbs on each you can have a run of 1200 bulbs. As we know how many lights are used on the Griswold’s house, buy 21 quantity of these groups of 40 sets and you’re on par with the Griswold extreme set up, but warn your neighbours first if you’re tempted!

Christmas 200 LED Net Lights

16.5 ft 200 LED net of warm white LED that covers a wide area with fairy light illumination. Great for covering roofs and planting, marquees and walls.

Check the Price

Holiday LED Lighting

Exterior LED Mesh Lights

Net lights create an array of small LED lights that can easily be installed over wide areas, like the roof of a house.

These waterproof mesh lights can save you time and effort. To achieve the same 25,000 light effect as Clark, you’d only need to string up 70 sets of these. Still a ridiculous amount I agree!

Christmas Net Lights 360 LEDs

Create a web of LED lighting with a net of 360 LED lights size is 13ft x 6.6ft with 9.8ft lead cable. Come with a waterproof end-to-end connector, that connects up to 3 strands to meet your needs for large or small area decor.

Check the Price

LED Roof Lights

Christmas Net Lights

Another low energy alternative to the Griswold set up is the use a cool white net of waterproof LED, that create a web of fairy lights that illuminate the roof or over trees and bushes.

The advantage of these is that the net just needs to be draped over the roof and then plugged in. As know how many lights are on Clark Griswold’s house, you’d need 70 sets of these nets with each having 360 LEDs to recreate a similar set up.

So, you too can have the same festive spirit as Clark Griswold this Christmas, but with a modern and efficient lighting system. Now go forth – make your house the brightest one on the street!

Happy Holidays!

Andrew Orange, the owner of Orange Lighting qualified and worked as an interior designer in 1993 before specialising in lighting working on high profile projects based in London. Since starting Orange Lighting Ltd in 2003 he has been sharing his knowledge and unique teaching style mostly to his designer clients, offering practical real life advice born from running a busy consultancy and lighting supply business. Launching in 2020, his blog has evolved into Quick & Easy Lighting, curating some 25 years design experience into making the lighting choice and design process achievable and easy to understand for all.