Brought my old lights in the house. Spent about an hour sorting them out. Especially those Ice Lights. Also spent time trying to find one bulb in 20 that needs to be changed. Got two strings of lights from the big ball tangled mess after an hour. Took some of the bulbs out (did you notice that spare bulbs cost 50x times what a string costs?) & threw the rest of the tangled mess out.
Mumbled under my breath about how I also bought a whole new Ice Light string for three bucks & a 25 light big bulb set new for $2.00 at a thrift store. Found the new sets have better wiring too. I think that I spent an hour & saved about $4.00 on lights.
Next year Im going to buy new ones. Give the old ones to the thrift shop
No longer will I put up with the kind that go out if just one bulb burns out. The lights I see in stores now mostly seem to be the new, improved type that stay lit if one light goes out. I bought several sets of this kind six years ago, and they are still going strong.
To store the strands from year to year, I flatten one of those cardboard gift boxes, and use scotch tape to attach one end of the light strand. Then I coil the strand around the box, and tape the other end to secure it. I can fit about four strands per box, leaving about three inches between each bundle. I can’t imagine how people cope with the “icicle” kind of lights … I think they look so nice but it must be a nightmare to untangle them.
My mom still uses lights that date back to her childhood. This takes a great deal of patience, but every year people comment on how wonderful those old bubble lights look on the tree.
Ah. Now I will share with my good friend Handy my Secret Christmas Light Survival Tip, which has saved me from killing somebody every Christmas for a long time now:
I invested about $2.00 in several of those plastic light-winder-upper things that look like plastic coat hangers that couldn’t make the cut. Since it’s my job to take the lights down anyway, instead of wadding up the lights, bundling them into a box and stuffing it in the basement, I slowly and ceremoniously wind them up, around and around, chanting a secret chant that someone who didn’t understand the Secret Christmas Light Survival Chant might mistake for the words “trucking lights, trucking lights, I’ve got you now, you trucking lights”.
Then I stuff the now-docile lights on their hangers in the basement. Then I don’t have to kill someone next Christmas. So my children will survive to adulthood, and all because of $2.00 worth of plastic. Kind of makes you think, don’t it?
P.S. And no, I don’t even bother with the “all for one and one for all” kind of lights. What perverted maniac invented those, anyway?
Seems like the larger the lights, the longer they last. I don’t have any luck re-using the little bitty ones. DDG’s suggestion about the special holder is a good one – my mom does that.
Minor hijack: Anyone have any luck keeping holiday season plants alive? The poinsettias, Christmas cactus? Mine are just as dead after the holidays as I am.
A number of years back I adopted a sorry-ass twig from a secretary who kept it on her desk but didn’t take care of it. She claimed it was a pointsettia; one couldn’t tell except for the red foil still on the plastic pot. The soil was like stryofoam, and the plant was just one dry twig sticking up–no branches or leaves. But it had one nubbin of green on the end of the twig.
It took plenty of love (plus 24x7 lighting and careful watering) to bring it back. Within two years the thing was a bit over three feet across and lush, lush, lush. But it never blossomed again.
Hey, wrapping lights is KEY and it’s easy too. Here’s a hint – grab some wrapping paper cores (which, coincidentally happen to be around this season) and wrap yer lights around 'em. I mean, I’m a laaaazy guy, which means I’ll expend considerable energy looking for an easy way to do something. This is HIGH on my shortcut list.
Throw lights away??? Perish the thought! I got 2000 up on the front of the crib, and I’m just getting started. Not to mention the two trees inside.
I use the cones that Frankd6 was referring to. What I can’t figure is, when I take the lights down every year, I SWEAR they work, however when I plug them in the next year to check if any bulbs went out…they always DO!! Now, people, what are these things doing to wear themselves out?? Turning themselves on IN the box with no light socket handy, just for the perverse thrill of knowing how it will bug me the next Christmas season??
** handy, ** I just KNEW those icicle lights must be a pain, there are houses down here [in Atlanta] that left them up ALL year long!
We try, we once had a pine tree about the size of telephone pole in the front yard and decorated most of it every year. So we have lots and lots of lights… now if only we could find them. We reuse everything we can find again even though it takes forever to find those boxes but when we take the lights down we just put them back in the boxes we bought them in so there’s really no trouble with them.
My parents used to make us shove the darn things back in the original boxes every single year. It was a PITA, but the lights did stay untangled and in good condition. Some of those sets have lasted over 20 years, and maybe thirty! On the other hand, the strings of lights that my husband bought before we were married lost the cartons long ago, and they are always a tangled mess.
I have been seriously considering buying those plastic light winder-up things that Duck Duck Goose mentioned (didn’t know they existed until I saw them on Friday), so I’m glad to hear that someone’s had good luck with them.
If you are going to throw them out/give them away, might I suggest going to Target? The lights are cheap, and they only last about one year, anyway, no matter how well you try to take care of them.
For plants, like poinsettias throw them out. They are grown in a temperature timed nursery. You can baby them but they won’t bloom next year on time. Cactuses you can save but again they are probably bloom timed in a nursery.
I only have lights on the outside. I would be nervous using really old ones outside with the rain dripping in them.
I really hoped they would come out with some nifty gizmo where you could use your computer to control your lights & make them do all sorts of things & play rock music. They probably make something like that But I haven’t looked.
That hanger idea seems cool. I think its for electrical cords.
My family uses all of our lights over again every year. We are still using the same “all for one, one for all” lights for 15 years or more. I’m pretty sure they’ve been around a lot longer than i have. Except for the rather new Icicle Lights that are only a few years old. My dad is responsible for putting up the lights as well as taking them down. Normally he coils them up much like a piece of rope and places them into a box. He puts the icicle lights back into there original packaging, but i never see him having to untangle wires… shrugs
My folks wind the lights around good thick and sturdy cardboard tubes, very carefully and methodically. Pain in the butt, but it works - especially if you carve a notch at each end of the tube to tuck the ends of the string in.
My Dad still has the patched and rewired remains of strings he bought when I was in diapers about half a century ago. (He also has some individual bulbs that date back to when he was in high school). Every year he says “this is the last year” as he pokes at them with the ohmmeter and tries to find bulbs in socket sizes that aren’t made any more.
The old string contained small colored bulbs that were frosted and had a really pretty glow, and some of those bubble bulb lights and a few massive pink and purple globe lights as well.
My husband and I were just talking about this! We threw out about 4 strands this year because we just couldn’t fix them. So every year, we try to reuse them but always end up buying some more.
Re: Poinsettias
They can be forced to “bloom” again. They just need something like 13 weeks in a closet with no light. IIRC.
Yeah, I’ve known people who have tried to get them to rebloom, and the big problem is that you’re keeping them in a closet or something, and no matter how many signs you put on the door that say, “DO NOT OPEN”, inevitably somebody’s gonna open the door and turn on the light and say, “Duh, what’s in HERE?”, and there goes 12-1/2 weeks of patient darkness-providing, right out the window, whoosh.
So just throw it away and buy a new one next year.
I coil my light around cardboard as delphica does. It’s handy when you put them back up, too, as you can just walk around the tree, uncoiling the lights as you go. (I put the tree into the middle of the room to decorate it, then push it into the corner when I’m done.)
As far as replacement bulbs go, if you use a standard size you can probably find a short string of lights (I’m not sure what people use them for-wreaths? table-sized trees?) from which you can take bulbs. It will be cheaper than a package of “replacement bulbs”, esp. during the after-holiday sales.
Window decorating idea for those Dopers who like to build stuff.
A little work at first, but afterwards, you can decorate your windows with lights in about 10 minutes. I took 1x2s, and made frames to fit snugly in my windows. You can attach the frames inside the windows or outside, whatever is easier. You can make just a rectangular frame, but a cross member will add stability, and more lights. If you want, paint the frames green, or match your house trim. Fit the frame into the window (make sure you mark each frame so you’ll know what window it goes in). Drill a hole through the inside of each frame, near the top on both sides, and into the window frame. You can then use a big nail on each side to keep the frame in place.
Take a string of lights - usually a string of 50 is sufficient - and staple it to the inside of the frame. You’ll have to work out the spacing, and you’ll have little loops of wire between each light. I’ve got my lights about an inch apart on the frames. Use round staples that are made for phone wire. Leave the plug end hanging freely. If you’ve got windows that are side-by-side, attach the lights so the plug ends will be next to each other.
Take some garland and staple it over the lights to hide the wiring. That’s all there is to it.
I cut the outlet end off of each string, then tape and shrink tube the ends up of the light wire on the frame. I use the outlet ends, along with bulk lamp wire, to make a custom extension cord with outlets along the way that match up with the lights.
I have 8 windows on the front of my house, and it takes me 10 minutes to get them decorated. The frames store easily in the attic. I’ve been using my frames for 5 years now. I made some for my parents 12 years ago, and they still work, too.
