The best outdoor smart plugs for Christmas lights

Two independently controlled outdoor outlets with sunset-offset scheduling. It is the only control type that gives you both automatic sunset tracking and a hard off time.

The control problem has two halves. You want the lights on when it actually gets dark, which moves through the season, and off at a fixed civilized hour. A clock timer solves the second and fails the first. A photocell solves the first and fails the second.

A smart plug with sunset-offset scheduling solves both: on at sunset plus fifteen minutes, off at 11:00 pm, and the on-time moves itself as the season progresses. That is the actual answer, and it is why smart plugs have displaced timers for people who already have decent Wi-Fi outside.

The KP400 has two independently switched outdoor outlets, so the roofline and the inflatables can be on different schedules from one device — useful, because an inflatable at 2:00 am is a different proposition from the roofline.

Two real cautions. Wi-Fi at an outdoor outlet on the far side of the house is often marginal; test coverage there before you commit the whole display to it. And check the combined amp rating against your load — smart plugs typically carry a lower rating than a 15 A mechanical timer, and that ceiling is easy to miss.

The same two-outlet smart plug idea inside Govee's app. Worth choosing specifically if your permanent lights or other outdoor lighting already live there.

There is no strong technical reason to pick one brand of outdoor smart plug over another. They all switch two outlets and run a schedule. The reason to choose is which app you are already in.

If you have Govee permanent lighting, or Govee string lights, putting the plug in the same app means one schedule, one scene, one place to turn everything off. Running the roofline in one app and the inflatables in another is the kind of small friction that ends with you turning things on by hand.

If you are not already in that ecosystem, the Kasa option above is equally good and there is nothing to choose between them.

The same practical limits apply: check Wi-Fi reach at the outdoor outlet, and check the amp rating against what you are plugging in.

Three grounded outlets, 7-day programming and a 15-amp rating in one weatherproof box. The amp rating is the spec that matters and this one does not cut it fine.

Buy the timer before you buy the last set of lights. Switching a display on and off by hand at an outdoor outlet lasts about four days before everyone gives up and leaves them on all night, which triples the running cost and shortens the life of everything.

The spec that decides a timer is its amp rating, and most people never look at it. An outdoor circuit is typically 15 amps. A timer rated at 10 amps plugged into that circuit is a 10-amp ceiling on your display whatever the breaker says, and exceeding it is how timers fail — often by welding their relay closed, which is a timer that never turns off again.

This DEWENWILS unit is rated 15 A with three grounded outlets and 7-day programming, and it is UL Listed. That last point deserves attention: certification is not universal in cheap outdoor timers, and it is the difference between a tested product and an untested one carrying your whole display.

Practical advice: program it indoors, on the kitchen table, before it goes outside. Digital timer interfaces are all bad, and they are worse in gloves, in the dark, at 25 degrees.

Three outlets also means one timer instead of three, which matters because each outdoor timer is itself a thing to weatherproof.