Best Place to Shop for Christmas Decorations/lights After Holiday Sales?

Home Depot, Lowes, Sears, Macy's, The Christmas Tree Shoppe, Ikea, and anywhere you can find Christmas decor will have it on sale and discounted 12/26/2014 until it's all sold out.

A coworker recently told me Lowe's does a really good sale. I might try looking there after Christmas to see what I can find.

Target is good and so are drugstores like CVS and Walgreen's and Rite Aid, which all sell a lot of Christmas stuff now including lights. I would not go near Wal-Mart if you paid me to -- it will be a madhouse.

But I'd start shopping now, not after the holidays. Some places put stuff on sale BEFORE Christmas Day, to unload inventory quickly and not have to run big after-Christmas sales. If you do wait, be there first thing on Dec. 26 because -- here at least -- stores are stripped bare of every sale item quickly. I've found going places on the 27th or later means nothing's there--literally, bare shelves. And that's why I don't go out on purpose to shop that way anymore; if I find a sale, great, but I don't seek them out. I do pick up things on sale before Christmas!

Home Depot, Lowes, Michaels currently has a lot of Christmas at 1/2 price, department stores for nice ornaments.

Target, Walmart, Kmart. Really everywhere because they want to get rid of everything.

Surprisingly the drugstore (Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid) is a great place for after Christmas deals. They usually mark down to 50 and then 75 percent off and they seem to have more choices than Target, which gets cleaned out pretty quickly.

I agree that places like Walgreens and CVS are great for after season mark downs. They are not the first place people go, so you can usually find a good selection.

Lows and Menards start their clearance sales before Christmas. You might be surprised what they have right now or next week.

The stores hate being left with any seasonal stock on hand.
I've found waiting till after Christmas is too late - they have nothing left in decorations by then.
You can get great deals on greeting cards and wrapping paper but decorations/lights are gone.
Some are holding marked down sales now.
The price cuts will get deeper as we get closer to Christmas but don't wait too long.
This weekend or early next week is your best bet.
Target and Lowe's are good place to look.

Just an added suggestion that you fish out the plug for all the new strings you buy, and plug it in to be sure the strings work! Don't unpack them entirely if you don't have to. Even if they are on sale, the store should take them back if they are defective. Even at 75% off, you don't want to pack them away for 11.5 months, pull them out next year, and find you are in the same situation - lightless!

Here in Canada the outdoor lights are already 50% off. Indoor lights will be 50-75% off everywhere come Boxing Day. Walmart is usually cheapest.

michaels!
:) khairete
S.

Well, balance what's cheap with what lasts. This year, we got new icicle lights from Home Depot because the old ones tried to electrocute my DH. I would keep an eye on everyone's sales and see who has deals after Christmas. We also have some very nice snowflake lights from IKEA.

In my experience, you'll probably have to wait until next year. The lights sell out pretty early (I've tried to replace some strings a week before Christmas in years past and was unable to find any) and what's left over tends to be slim pickings...weird colors, ugly size bulbs, etc. I've learned to check my lights in November and go out no later than within the week after Thanksgiving to get the best selection. After that, it's really hit or miss.

I'm also finding that the LED lights are everywhere and it's harder to find non-LED. The LEDs don't look like the non-LEDs in terms of color (very different shades of white) so if you do all white, this might be a good time to just make the jump to LED. They supposedly take way less energy and last longer. We haven't made the switch yet because I don't like the blue-ish tone and can't afford to higher price to change all of them over at once. If you use colored lights it might not make much of a difference whether or not you mix the types.

ETA: also want to chime in on CVS. I get all of my Halloween decorations there for 90% off a few days after Halloween. The selection is slim, but I've been able to get some animatronic displays (a talking skeleton, light up witches, etc.) for $3 or $4 instead of $30 or $40.

I go to Walmart. 90% off a few days afterwards. I wait it out until it's more than 50% off.

I was at At Home (aka Garden Ridge) yesterday and most of their Christmas stock is 25% off, with some already at 50%. I don't think Target discounts until after Christmas. Home Depot and Lowe's might start discounting Christmas Eve if I remember.

If you want to shop on Christmas Eve (I wouldn't), I bet you could get good deals on decorations and lights then.