No camera sensors or film have the dynamic range of our eyes so in a scene like this, while it looks ok to our eye, you will not be able to capture it with the camera properly. It is obvious that the lights are very much over exposed - thus the halo effect - and you did that on purpose so that you can get the trees and water in the picture. If you expose for the light properly, everything else will be totally dark - that the result of lack of dynamic ranges. Even if you have a sensor that can captures the scene properly, there is no medium that can display it - your computer screen won't have that dynamic range or contrast ratio capability to show it. So, if you want to have a good picture of this, here's 3 things you can do to "cheat" a little:
1. Time to use HDR - High Dynamic Range technic - do a 5 shot bracket of -2, -1, 0, +1, +2 ev and assemble them together. If you don't know HDR, google it. If you don't have Photoshop and use only Lightroom there is a plugin you can get to do it - google "Enfuse" - is a "donation-ware" and if you like it, donate some money to them.
Or 2. Take the picture during dusk - when there's still some background light and set exposure mode to "spot" and put the spot on the brightest light. The light will be properly exposed but the rest will be under but at least there's some light to show something other than a black dark background. Shoot RAW then in Lightroom, boost the "Dark" and the "Shadow" and up the "Clarity".
Or 3, Get closer so more of the light fills the image area. Set exposure mode to "matrix" metering and when more of the lighting fills the image, it will meter more accurately for the light and they won't be over exposed. Google "image christmas lights" and noticed how all the images that are exposed properly (and not done by HDR) have more light than dark in the pictures.
Hope this helps.