Asked on May 29, 2018

Lighting of Decorative Village question

Mary
by Mary
I have this small Thomas Kincaid village that I love. It came with each house having a Christmas tree bulb on a long cord, so there's this heavy cord running out of each one. We'd like to change the lights to LED and connect them with as few cords as possible. Has anyone used different lights for their villages to make the cord mess less cumbersome?
  14 answers
  • Baxter Baxter on May 29, 2018

    You could use battery powered Fairy Lights. Amazon has them in short lengths.

    • See 1 previous
    • They have remote controlled ones

  • Gaetane Gaetane on May 29, 2018

    following...would love an answer to this as well...and don't want to use batteries.

  • Kathy Kathy on May 30, 2018

    At Christmas time Michaels has a light kit that has 4-8 cords with bulbs to a single power plug that will fit MOST of these type houses, Dept 56 also has a version that i prefer over Michaels, they seem to fit better, they have an in-line on/off switch so no ”tipping” you still have the cords to each house but less to plug in. The only drawback is the cord length you may be able to separate the. holdings as much as you would like, i think there is about a foot between each bulb

    • Mary Mary on May 30, 2018

      Thank you, Kathy! I will definitely check into Dept 56 and Michaels for what you describe.

  • Kathy Kathy on May 30, 2018

    sorry fingers were a little ahead of me, you may NOT be able to separate the buildings as much as you would like

  • As Baxter was saying, fairy lights are a great option. They're tiny, battery operated, and remote controlled. I have purchased them at Kohls with the remotes. You can find them at Wal-Mart and target too. You can set them up to they all run on one remote or seperate remotes. The remotes are sold seperately

  • Sherry Pembleton Sherry Pembleton on May 30, 2018

    Hi Mary, If you can find solar powered lights made for a patio umbrella. The solar panel has a long fine cord that will reach a window to charge up and it has separate strings of tiny light and the lights are spaced far enough apart to reach each one of your buildings. That way you wouldn't have all those plugs. Of course, it would only light up when it gets dark outside or if you covered the solar panel with something dark. Hope this helps!


  • Sharon Sharon on May 30, 2018

    Go to Wish.com. look up led balloon lights. Or bullet lights. They have the battery included. They come in different colors and amounts, like 30 or 50 etc. I hope this helps. P.S. no cords ever.

    • Mary Mary on May 30, 2018

      Thank you, Sharon, I will definitely take a look!

  • Deanna Nassar Deanna Nassar on May 30, 2018

    You could set up the buildings on a wood box. Box needs to be only a couple of inches deep. Drill holes in wood and fit mini light through the hole. Any unused bulbs are hidden by the box, along with the clutter of electric cord. I think some of the mini light strings can still run if some of the bulbs are missing. Staple the cords to keep them in place.

  • Anne Anne on Jun 02, 2018

    I agree with Deanna. I use mini LED lights for my Christmas village. I can put 2-3 lights in each house, cover the in-betweens and cord with "snow", and have only 1 cord/plug to deal with. LEDs light the houses nicely and the bulbs never get hot, so they are safer for longer use.

    • Mary Mary on Jun 02, 2018

      Thank you Anne. It looks like that’s what I’ll be doing!

  • Linda Linda on Jun 02, 2018

    In addition to snow you can use moss and fake grass to cover your box or structure housing the cords. Good luck

  • Liv Liv on Jun 15, 2018

    Another idea on how to disguise the light box is to wrap it so it looks like a small present with only the switch accessible. You can easily wrap it again when you remove the wrapping if it is battery operated.

  • Ann48742136 Ann48742136 on Aug 31, 2020

    I'd use remote led lights, they are very power saving and the cords are barely visible. There are plenty of models on Amazon, eBay and Aliexpress. Also, this lighting hire company can help I've seen a lot of similar projects on their site with larger villages and invisible cords. Maybe they used computer graphics to hide them, but still worth giving them a try. Also, where do I get a village like this? My daughter has eaten my brains out asking for one. I would like a store where I can see it before buying.

  • Johnavallance82 Johnavallance82 on Apr 12, 2021

    Battery lights?

  • JOEY JOEY on Apr 10, 2022

    maybe copper wire string lights or flexible led strip lights. they are both flexible and battery-operated. easy to install for these villages.