Turn up the holiday cheer with a Christmas light projector, a fun way to brighten the outside or inside of your home for the holidays.
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Editor’s Note: The Family Handyman team is testing new Christmas light projectors for the 2025 holiday season, so stay tuned for an update to this guide soon.
Introduced to the retail market in 2015, a Christmas light projector casts digital images, such as snowflake flurries or animated Santa Clauses, onto surfaces. They work by passing light-emitting diode (LED) light through a lens, which magnifies the image and projects it onto a house or other object. Why spend the weekend hanging strings of light bulbs on a ladder when a Christmas light projector can be installed in minutes?
But light projectors aren’t just for the holidays. “Projector images can range from galaxy designs to various colors or even your favorite sports team,” says Gary McCoy, a lighting expert and Lowe’s store manager. Ready to illuminate your space? Here are the eight best Christmas light projector options for staging a festive light show your neighbors will envy!
Put on a color-changing light show all year-round with this Outdoor LED Spotlight Projector. Not overtly Christmassy, the multipurpose rainbow of 10-watt LEDs let you create everything from a spooky graveyard to delight door-bell-ringing trick-or-treaters to a Yuletide-approved showcase. Flood landscaping with a subtle and decorative glow or add atmospheric up-lighting to fountains, swimming pools and ponds.
When you want to brighten up an extra-large area with dazzling holiday-themed patterns, dream big with these Christmas Laser Lights. With more LED laser light casting “oomph” for the money, it shines festive fun onto a home’s exteriors using five patterns (like Christmas trees and jingle bells) in four flashing modes at five speeds. It allows you to operate those options with the remote control and timer. For your family’s peace of mind, the unit has a built-in safety sensor switch that automatically shuts it off if the light gets too hot.
Shooting thousands of twinkling holographic celestial bodies, the Star Shower Motion Laser Light will blanket bushes, hedges and trees with luminous constellations. With the touch of a button, the motion activator makes the stars dance. Covering a massive amount of real estate when aimed from 100 yards away, the electric-powered projector has a built-in daylight sensor that turns on when it’s dark and off at sunrise to save battery life.
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Why leave your dream of a white Christmas to fate when you can enjoy a traditional winter wonderland with Syslux’s Christmas Projector Lights? Beam snowfall or tiny alabaster dots onto your front lawn or mount the unit to the side of the house and shine snowflake patterns on pathways and sidewalks. The projector emits bright LED beads that travel a distance of up to 45 feet, yet produces soft lamplight that won’t hurt your eyes.
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Completely bathe your home with thousands of tiny green, red and blue pinpoints of light that automatically cycle through 18 moving holiday patterns with the Ledmall Christmas Motion Power 3-in-1 Laser. The Ledmall outclasses the other outdoor projectors with an upgraded memory feature that lets you preset the remote control to roll out your favorite themes automatically. All you have to do is sit back and enjoy the show.
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You’ll get your money’s worth with Sunbox’s Holiday Project Lights—after all, it comes with 16 pattern slides and 10 colors for Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Easter and more holidays. Use the remote control to turn the projector on and off, as well as control the flash and speed mode. Better yet, you’ll never have to remove this projector, because as soon as one holiday is over, you’ll be able to start celebrating the next one.
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Unlike many projectors, there’s no need to waste time inserting slides to change images. The Water Wave Projector Party Light lets you browse through 15 dreamy and undulating color waves to fit your mood. Get your backyard party started by presetting the remote to cycle through monochrome or multicolored lights. Or press “auto” and let it fade through a kaleidoscope of neon hues.
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To find the best Christmas light projectors, we began by researching the wide range of models available on the market. We considered factors such as brightness, coverage area, color options, ease of setup and durability. To further refine our selection, we analyzed real user reviews to gain insights into performance, reliability and overall customer satisfaction. Additionally, we consulted with lighting experts to understand the latest trends and innovations in holiday lighting technology.
That’s a tricky question. Light output, or wattage, refers to the brightness emitted by the device. Outdoor light projectors are designed for decorative purposes, not for security lighting. There are several variables to consider. These include the size of the area you want to cover and the proximity of the projector to the object you want to illuminate. The surrounding light level (such as a house on a remote country road versus one on a city street) is also a factor.
Indoors, yes. However, achieving optimal visualization outdoors typically requires full darkness.
Yes, light projectors can work on trees if you position them at the base and angle them upward, using the trunk and branches as natural projection surfaces. However, projecting onto a large exterior wall is generally easier, as the flat, uninterrupted surface creates a cleaner, more consistent pattern.
I’m a freelance writer, editor, journalist and blogger living and working in a medieval hill town in Italy. As a product reviews expert, I regularly contribute to Family Handyman on various subjects inside and outside the home. Lighting and Christmas are two topics I’ve covered extensively, from Christmas tree storage bags and backyard snow machines to solar, LED and motion sensor lights. So, you can trust my expertise in this area.
To ensure the most informed recommendations, we also sought input from industry professionals, including Gary McCoy, a Lowe’s store manager and lighting expert. With decades of experience in the home improvement industry, McCoy possesses first-hand knowledge of sales trends and customer needs.
