Hello everyone.
Please forgive my ignorance, as I am completely brand new to all this Christmas magic being created with all these beautifully created tools! I’ve watched a lot of videos and read plenty of material on this topic, but still not clear on the difference between xlights and wled. Can someone help clarify please?
My apologies for the juvenile question 
No such thing.
WLED is a piece of open source software that runs on ESP8266/ESP32 (ESP32 recommended) boards to light up addressable LEDS. The software has a huge raft of features and effects to make all sorts of displays possible. It can even synchronize the effects between 2 or more boards across a WiFi connection.
Xlights is a marvelous piece of open source software that runs on a PC and acts as “graphics editor” for strings of lights.
It has it’s own set of features, but it’s often used to create complex moving displays and synchronizing them to music. Youtube will have a few thousand examples.
One of the fantastic features of WLED, is the ability to accept commands from some “industry standard” communication protocols: E1.31 / DMX / Artnet
Xlights can output those commands to externally control and synchronize multiple WLED controllers in ways that would require too much horespower for a single ESP32 board.
WLED is excellent for handling many LED displays by itself, but when you want to control your entire yardful of LEDs, Xlights is the go-to tool.
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Wow! Thank you so much for the prompt and detailed explanation. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be able to participate in this group and learn from you very competent contributors.
Thank you for having me. I look forward to learning this new hobby with your help 
