How many lights you might need for your tree is a question we get a lot, but also one that depends largely on personal tastes, so the good news is there are no hard and fast rules.
You should first determine how dense you want the lighting on your tree to be. If you have a lot of ornaments, you may opt for a lower density of bulbs to make more room for ornaments, for example. On the other hand, if you will be keeping it simple with lights and tinsel, you may opt for a higher density of lights to make a bright show-stopper.
Once you've decided where your personal tastes fall, you can use the following formulas to get an idea of how many bulbs you'll need. Keep in mind that it's not critical to be exact with these numbers. All measurements are in feet.
For low density: Height of Tree × Diameter of Tree at Base × 4
For medium density: Height of Tree × Diameter of Tree at Base × 5
For high density: Height of Tree × Diameter of Tree at Base × 6
Since these numbers will most likely yield a number that is not neatly divisible by 25, if you are using our Classic Light Strings that have 25 sockets each, you'll want to round up or down to the nearest multiple of 25. The following example will demonstrate this more clearly:
EXAMPLE: If your tree is 6.5 feet tall and is 3.5 feet wide at the base of the tree (it's diameter at the lowest branches), your various density calculations would look as follows:
For low density: 6.5 feet × 3.5 × 4 = 91 bulbs
For medium density: 6.5 feet × 3.5 × 5 = 114 bulbs
For high density: 6.5 feet × 3.5 × 6 = 137 bulbs
If you are using our vintage-style light strings, which come with 25 sockets each, you will need to round these numbers up or down (to your own preference) to the nearest multiple of 25. If rounding up, the bulbs needed for this tree would be 100, 125, or 150, respectively.
With the result of your calculation in hand, you now know how many bulbs you'll need and can order the exact bulbs you want in 25-count boxes or 5-packs to suit your personal tastes.