Normally when we talk about balancing light, it usually means balancing ambient with flash. But getting good photos of holiday lights involves a different kind of light balancing: Continuous ambient with fading ambient.

You don't need a high-end camera for great results. You can use a very inexpensive digital camera and do just fine. You don't even need flash. It all comes down to what time of the day you shoot. And a couple of other little tricks.
1. Arrive early. The best time to shoot is before it gets totally dark. More specifically, get there before what looks like mix light to your eyes, too.
2. Compose your photo in such a way as to include as much sky as possible in the background. Shooting from a low position can help. Even better: If you have your choice of shooting direction, shoot into the afterglow of the evening sky.
3. Try setting your camera's white balance for "tungsten," as if you were shooting indoors without flash. All of those little lights are tungsten balanced. As a bonus, the tungsten setting will turn your afterglow sky royal blue once your light balances out.
4. A light foreground like the snow or water can give nice foreground interest.
5. Use a tripod or a beanbag to steady your camera. (I need to remember this cause I’m a shaker) You'll be shooting in the range of a quarter second to a full second at twilight. If shooting with a smartphone or tablet, use both hands to brace it against something solid.
6. Somewhere in between sunset and full dark, the Christmas lights and the ambient light will start to mix beautifully. You'll have about a 10-minute window which will give you a nice series of subtly different lighting variations.
Have fun with this…. I look forward to seeing what you all come up with. Low light shooting continues to be a challenge for me.
Happy snapping! :thumbup:

(these are worth watching)
http://youtu.be/ojzxvgkB4eY
http://youtu.be/-xLoQ72Ec3k

Very festive theme today. Thanks. My first one is, and I hope readers will understand why, is seemingly out of focus, (it is not. It is Elvis at a Xmas party. Very elusive, have you ever seen a in-focus shot of Bigfoot?) Next is not lights but wrapping and the last two convey not only a sense of humour but also of delight. Bah! Humbug to each and every one............

sounds like a fun challenge....I will try to see what I can do tomorrow...sun rises about 11:00 and sets around 3:00....but after the shortest day on the 21st it starts getting lighter by about 5 minutes a day.....over the hump....lol Here's some of my indoor shots meanwhile...