Hanging Christmas lights without nails

Use all-purpose clips that take both a gutter lip and a shingle edge - the Projectpak clips for a typical roof, or the 200-piece set if the run is long. Buy about one clip per foot of run, and never put a nail or a staple anywhere near a light string.

A clip is not the compromise option. It holds a C9 bulb upright and facing out, which a nail through the wire does not, and it comes off in January leaving the fascia exactly as it was. Staples through cable are also how insulation gets nicked, which is a genuine problem on a wet roof.

Nails and staples damage two things. The obvious one is the fascia, which ends up with a line of holes that fill with water. The less obvious one is the cable: a staple that pinches or nicks the insulation on an outdoor circuit creates a fault path exactly where rain will find it. Neither problem exists with a clip.

Clips aim the bulb. A C9 or C7 bulb held in a clip points outward and upright along the whole run. The same string nailed through its wire sags and the bulbs rotate, which is why hand-fixed runs look uneven from the street even when the spacing is right.

And they come off. January, cold hands, a ladder: the difference between unclipping a run and prising out eighty staples is the difference between an hour and an afternoon.

Projectpak all-purpose clips - the pick. Takes a gutter lip or a shingle edge without swapping parts, which matters because most rooflines need both within one run.
Who it is for: a typical roof with a mix of gutter and shingle edge. Who should skip it: anyone with covered gutters - the guard removes the lip - and anyone fixing to brick, which has no edge at all.
Cons: plastic goes brittle after a few frost seasons; leaf guards defeat the gutter mode; you will lose some every year; nothing published about temperature rating.

All-purpose clips, set of 200 - for a long run. Two hundred clips for roughly what a hundred cost elsewhere - the pack for a big frontage plus the inevitable losses.
Who it is for: long or multi-elevation runs, and anyone who hangs lights every year. Who should skip it: a small porch, where 200 clips is twenty years of supply.
Cons: unbranded; generic sizing is a compromise across bulb shapes; frost brittleness applies; no published UV or temperature rating.

Shingle and gutter clips for C7 and C9, 100 pack - for big bulbs specifically. Sized for the large shapes, which generic clips do not hold upright.
Who it is for: a C7 or C9 roofline, where bulb orientation is the whole look. Who should skip it: anyone running 5mm or mini lights - the small bulbs slip straight through.
Cons: unbranded; wrong clip for small bulbs; brittle in hard frost; no published temperature rating.

The string they are built for: the Brizled C9 set. C9 is the shape clips are designed around, and the one that most benefits from being held upright.
Who it is for: a roofline outlined properly. Who should skip it: wraps and small-scale work.

Clip-on lights are about the most tenant-friendly exterior change there is: nothing drilled, nothing adhered, nothing left behind. Two cautions are worth stating anyway.

Check the lease for exterior decoration terms before you start. Plenty of buildings have rules about what can appear on a facade regardless of how it is fixed.

Avoid adhesive on painted surfaces. Outdoor adhesive hooks are genuinely useful on brick, and genuinely capable of taking paint off timber when they come away in the cold. On painted fascia, clip the edge instead. The broader deposit-safe approach is in no-drill lighting that will not cost your deposit.

For ambient patio string lights, which hang quite differently - guy wire, hooks and poles rather than edge clips - see how to hang string lights without drilling.