Seasonal Lighting Ideas: From Christmas to Canada Day with Permanent Lights

The best thing about permanent lights is that they aren’t just for December. Once they’re on the house, every month has something worth lighting for. Here’s a year of ideas, using what’s built into the Gemstone Lights app. Most of these can run by themselves through Autopilot, Gemstone’s set of free event calendars.

January: start the year with fireworks

Set a yearly timer in the app for midnight on January 1st and choose the Fireworks pattern, and the house will go off right on cue. Gemstone’s New Year guide also gives colours a meaning if you want to pick a theme: green for prosperity, yellow for hope, purple for luxury and white for new beginnings. More ideas are on our New Year’s Eve lights page.

February: pinks and reds

For Valentine’s Day, Gemstone leans on pink, red and lavender. The Multi Pulse animation repeats patterns in doubles for a heartbeat effect, and the free Valentine Vibes folder has ready-made patterns. See the Valentine’s Day lights page.

Spring: Easter and Earth Day

Easter has its own Autopilot calendar. Earth Day sits in Gemstone’s Special Events category, which is a good excuse for greens and blues for an evening.

May: a few fun ones

Gemstone’s Fun category includes Star Wars Day on May 4th and Cinco de Mayo. Mother’s Day is in the Special Events calendar, along with Nurses Day.

June: Father’s Day

Another Special Events date. Pick his team’s colours, or just a warm white that makes the house look its best for a backyard dinner.

July 1st: red and white

Canada Day is one of the scenes on Gemstone’s own home page. Red and white work across the whole roofline, Fireworks suits the evening, and a white flood light on a flag finishes it off. Our Canada Day lights page has patterns to try.

Summer evenings: the patio and deck

Summer is when the backyard gets used. If you have patio string lights or deck lights on the same system, set them to warm white for dinner outside and something brighter for a party.

September 30: the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

This date is part of Gemstone’s Canada category in Autopilot, so the lights can mark it without you setting anything up.

October: Halloween, and pink for awareness

October has two looks. For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Gemstone suggests pink and white. Then Halloween takes over: purple and orange, the Flicker animation in red or deep purple, and the Ghost animation running along the roofline. See Halloween lights for more.

November: Diwali and the build-up to December

Diwali is in Gemstone’s Autopilot library. Gemstone also notes that busy families tend to load their holiday lighting schedule in early November, so December looks after itself.

December: Christmas, and Hanukkah

Christmas is what most people picture with permanent lights, and the app has thousands of patterns for it, plus a Christmas Advent Calendar folder to count down the days. Hanukkah has its own Autopilot calendar too. Our permanent Christmas lights page has more.

All year: game days

Autopilot has sports calendars for the NHL, NFL, NBA and MLB. Pick a team and the house switches to its colours on game nights, home games, away games or both. See game day lights.

And the other nights

On nights with nothing on the calendar, Gemstone’s Everyday calendars run a warm, cool or bright white by themselves. That’s what the house looks like most of the year, and it’s arguably the best look of all.