Wednesday, January 11, 2012

O Christmas Tree

"The little lights aren't twinkling."
"I know Art, and thanks for noticing."
Christmas Vacation
For the past several years, I've held my breath when plugging in the Christmas tree, always fairly sure that the pre-lit lights will have lived out their usefulness. This year was no exception. But all the little lights came on! I was impressed, this being the tree's 8th Christmas. A week or so after all the decorations were on, I noticed a few branches were dark. We bought one of those light test/repair guns, but no luck. A few days later, another branch joined the darkness. Then a few more. It was beginning to look like Christmas might be a little dark at our house! About half of the lights made it until Christmas day, and David filled in some dark places with additional strings of lights.

Not wanting to get rid of the tree, I spent about 4 hours on one of my days off after Christmas with a pair of wire cutters and a trash can, cutting out all 600 lights. By next Christmas, I'm sure I'll be glad I did it, but that sure isn't a fun task. No more pre-lit trees for me!

3 comments:

Keetha Broyles said...

Our tree in Marion was a pre-lit - - - a 9 foot tall pre-lit. It didn't last 8 years before the lights started burning out.

We didn't even remove the "dead" light - - - Fisherhubby just looped the other kind in there on top of them and we continued to use it that way.

It was GREAT while it worked - - - but then, not so much!

:-)

Anonymous said...

I had always thought those lights wouldn't last forever on a pre-lit tree and then what would you do. Now, I know. I'll just stick with what we have. Thanks to you Erin, we won't be buying a pre-lit tree.

Dawn said...

With my luck with lights, I will NEVER buy a pre-lit tree... EVERY year I have at least one section go out on me. Can't believe you cut out all 600 lights!!