23 Christmas Light Nails Ideas for the Cutest Holiday Manicure

There is something magical about the twinkle of Christmas lights – the warmth of the light, the colors, we just can’t help to be drawn to them. Now, imagine you can recreate the same magic on your nails!

We have put together this curated selection of some of the prettiest ideas for Christmas light nails, to show you how you can transform even the most simple manicure with a little bit of Christmas magic.

How can you achieve the look?

How to Create Christmas Light Nails

There are a few ways and trends for achieving the look – to select the right one for you, you need to consider the shape and length of your nails, and whether you want to attempt this manicure at home or you’re visiting a nail salon.

Here are some common styles and themes you can try:

Using Rhinestones – if you don’t want to hand paint the light bulbs, you can use rhinestones in their place. The added benefit is of course the extra shine and bling you achieve this way. You will need to find them in a variety of colors and small enough that they fit on your nails easily.
Hand-painted lights – this is by far the most common method of creating the look, but it’s not suitable for beginners and needs the assistance of a skilled nail artist
Using neon nail polish – this type of nail polish will ensure that your lights will stay vibrant in any light. You can also use a glow in dark nail polish which will ensure that your nails will come to life even in the dark
Base color variety – we’ve seen this design most often used with beige or natural base color, but it looks superb also with light pink or plain white
Mismatched look – this Christmas manicure is often matched with other festive elements, like reindeer nail art, candy canes, Christmas trees or the simple addition of classic festive colors like dark green, deep red or pink.

Video Tutorial: Christmas Light Nails

Get inspired by this tutorial for a glowing string of Christmas lights prepared by Sadler up Nails on youtube.

23 Christmas Light Nails Ideas

Here is our selection of the best styles we found on Instagram – if you need even more ideas and inspiration, you can check our dedicated Pinterest board with dozens more ideas not shared here.

1. Christmas Light Nails with Gemstones

A pretty shimmery base nail polish helps to bring this gorgeous design to life. Instead of simple drops of nail polish, you can use tiny nail stickers to achieve the glowing look you want for your light string.

2. Christmas Light Nails with Santa

Even the man of the hour makes an appearance on these nails! Stick to a simple color scheme for your string of lights if you’re using additional elements for the nails.

3. Christmas Light French Tip Nails

Simple white and red theme for nails can be easily translated into a classic minimalist look for your Christmas lights nails.

4. Hand Painted Christmas Light Nails

For those who would like to attempt this at home, this is a great example of how the look can be achieved, by hand painting each light bulb and connecting with a golden string.

5. Grinch Christmas Light Nails

Transfer the magic of Christmas straight to your nails! A skilled nail artist will be able to create this work of art Grinch nail design that will surely ensure that you stand out of the crowd during the holiday season.

6. Christmas Light Nails with Rhinestones

Tiny rhinestones really transform your nails into a bit of magic, you just have to be careful that they are glued well enough so they don’t start falling off gradually.

7. Christmas Light Coffin Nails

With coffin nails you have a lot more space to play with and you can alternate between displaying one or two light strings on your nails.

8. Red and White Christmas Light Nails

Not sure about covering all your nails? Do a feature nail instead and paint the rest of them in the classic holiday color of red.

9. Red and Gold Christmas Light Nails

Another version of the statement nail approach with the prettiest shade of red and gold nail polish perfectly complements the look. As you can see it looks spectacular even on short nails.

10. Pink Christmas Light Nails

This is one of our favourite looks, with pink base nail polish and pastel colored lights on the string.

11. Green Christmas Light Nails

Green is one of the classic colors of the season, and you can elevate it further by adding a couple of nails with the Christmas light design.

12. Candy Canes & Christmas Light Nails

Two of our favorite things about Christmas – the lights and the candy! You can capture and match both easily as shown in this pretty manicure.

13. Tree Branch Christmas Light Nails

Capture the edges of the Christmas tree with the lights reflecting on the branches, as shown beautifully in this example.

14. White Tip Christmas Light Nails

Don’t want to give up your French tips for the holidays? Give them a little makeover by adding a few strings of Christmas lights.

15. Red Simple Christmas Light Nails

One of the prettiest and most simple looks if you don’t want to go overboard with the Christmas lights look.

16. Mismatched Christmas Light Nails

Multi-colored trees and lights, perfectly matched with a shade of pink and gold. Who is going to try this look for Christmas?

17. Christmas Lights on Short Nails

Got short nails? You can still pull of the look – just keep the light bulbs on your string small enough and ensure that your string has a variety of shapes.