Just a couple of weeks ago we went camping with our children and a few families and we decided it would be a great time to see what our Christmas lights would look like while roughing it – in our pop-up!

We had access to electricity so we rolled out and hung up lights all over the campsite.

Get the Look

• C9 LED Christmas lights sets
• C9 bulbs and cords (traditional incandescent)
• 12-volt sets
• LED Christmas light sets
• Rope lights

(There is no internet while you are camping so, so we had fun hanging the lights!)

Traditional C9 lights (on white C9/E17 cords)

Close up view

The C9’s were very festive – bright and colorful. Classic choice for a classic family weekend.

We were camping with friends, so we put rope light on Brian’s camper and Owen the toddler, posed for a photo there as well. (His camper was newer and much more swanky than ours! It even had an awning!)

They were bright and really lit the place up.

Of all the lights we tried, the rope lights were the brightest. Later, Brian tucked them under the edge of the awning and the rope lights looked really “glowy” like that. (BTW, Brian liked them so much we told him to keep them as part of his camping gear with our compliments.)

 

Then we made a switch to warm white. Here is a photo of the warm white C7 LED Christmas lights. They had their greatest impact after sunset.

A close-up view. Totally popping out of the photo. We liked their cool operation and ease of installation. These are a great solution if you have access to 120 volts.  

 

Without access to 120V power, most campers have batteries and accessory outlets. Twelve-volt light strings are a great choice for remote generator camping. 

Shown in multi and pure white.

We like the 12-volt sets because if we hadn’t had electricity, then they would have been perfect. For our pop up that didn’t have an accessory plug, we just plugged the sets into our truck cigarette lighter. Each string of lights has a 15-foot cord which was plenty for the reach.

It was too hard to pick a clear winner. We enjoyed them all. A tote of lights has been with us camping ever since.

And we all agreed that beanie-wienie is the best camping dinner ever.

Originally published Oct 28. 2008

Oh, and in looking through old photos I found this photo that shows how clever Dave can get when Texas summer meets pop-up camping!!  Window unit camping!!  Who knew!