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Pre-lit Christmas trees.... Bah! Humbug!

The tree that we are going to be replacing this year cost us $14 (fourteen) in 1997, the year we got married. It's not the greatest, but certainly above the level of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We are going to be buying a prelit tree this year. I have seen them from about $80...but I am guessing a good LED model will set us back closer to $150-$180.

Yes, tossing the old one will be a little sad. I have always had a artificial tree except for a couple of years post-college where roommates bought a real tree. Artficial works for me, no hassles with a real tree like falling needles, going out to buy one each year, dragging the dead one to the curb every year...etc. I also welcome owning a prelit tree. It takes us about 30 minutes to find working strings and to put up the lights every year. I would much rather just assemble the tree and start putting ornaments on, but certainly to each his own.
 
I grew up with real trees we would plant after Christmas.
I've had artificial trees for 20 years now.
I've had prelit for 10.

I'd rather do this than spend the effort stringing the tree. Besides, troubleshooting a fuse/bulb in a prelit tree is not much more complicated than dooing it on a string of lights. And, living in FL, seeing the cut trees in the sales tents (being sold for exorbitant prices) dropping needles in 80 degree weather makes me kid of sad.
 
My wife and I had a pre-lit tree for about 7 years. As bulbs or strings went, I replaced with a new string. Last year we bought a new pre-lit and will do the same thing. I can't be bothered looking for that "one" bulb that has fracked up an entire string. In 6 or 7 years, we'll buy another pre-lit. The cats can be hard on tree, too.:D
 
MultiM said:
I can't be bothered looking for that "one" bulb that has fracked up an entire string.
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Strings of lights haven't been serial in over 30 years. 1 bulb goes out, only that bulb stays out. Seriously, some of you guys arguing for pre-lit trees don't seem to have had to actually used light strings in the last 40 or so years. :rolleyes:
 
I considered pre-lit, but our tree is peppermint-themed, and we use alternating red/white lights on it.

It's a royal pain in the ass to wrap every branch, but it looks amazing when I'm done. The lighting is much more dense than on pre-lit trees I've seen, and we can keep the alternate red/white thing going.
 
KnightWRX said:
Strings of lights haven't been serial in over 30 years. 1 bulb goes out, only that bulb stays out. Seriously, some of you guys arguing for pre-lit trees don't seem to have had to actually used light strings in the last 40 or so years. :rolleyes:
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Unless it's the flashing bulb...if you have one, then they would indeed all go out.

I have had major issues with parallel-wired light sets where I just can't find the bulb that is out. Sure, it sounds good on paper , but from personal experience there is still an issue where 'one light goes out, they all go out'.
 
I grew up with an artificial tree, but once I hit high school my parents switched to a natural tree. My mother considers decorating/lighting the Christmas tree to be an unbreakable tradition, so I know they won't get a pre-lit tree until they are too old to decorate it themselves.

This year, my father wrote to say that they finally cut down the big pine tree that's been growing in our front yard for over 50 years, and they are going to use the top of it for our christmas tree.
 
Don't panic said:
i like the smell and feel of the real trees.
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Exactly. It's all part of the experience. Just like turning the little thumbscrews in the base to make the tree straight, getting water all over the place, vacuuming up pine needles. It's the little things that makes the holidays great.

And the rest of you are ***** communists.
 
KnightWRX said:
Strings of lights haven't been serial in over 30 years. 1 bulb goes out, only that bulb stays out. Seriously, some of you guys arguing for pre-lit trees don't seem to have had to actually used light strings in the last 40 or so years. :rolleyes:
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I'm not "arguing" for anything. I'm just telling you my experience. Happily, you know so much more than I and your experience is different.:rolleyes:
 
VICTORY! I fixed my pre-lit Christmas tree lights last night. In the interest of giving back to the community -- here is how I fixed them:

My lights are similar to the others here described as parallel-wired and only a couple years old. I don't even know how many parallel segments were wired into this strand but I stopped counting at four. Anyway, one of the segments was out. The only fuse was at the plug, and it was fine, especially since the other segments of the strand were lit.

I verified that at least a few of the bulbs were still good by swapping with others from a working strand. Then I started the laborious task of visually inspecting every little bulb that was intertwined in all those branches. They all looked good. I then decided to test each bulb by replacing it with a known working bulb -- if no change then I replaced the original bulb. Got thru about 15 of those when I stumbled across a well-hidden bulb socket that only had the base of the bulb remaining -- somehow the glass part, filament, etc were missing. I pulled out the plastic base and replaced it with a new bulb and WAH-LAH!

So don't get discouraged, guys. Before you chuck that pre-lit tree in the trash, be diligent and look very close and you will likely find the source of the problem. Merry Christmas!
 
Pre-lit Christmas trees -- Great for awhile

We bought our 7.5 ft pre-lit Christmas tree in 2003 and it was great until this year. This year half the lights didn't light. We fooled around with it for two days and got everything lit except two branches, so turned that part to the back. During the season, more branches went out. We've had 7 years of good use out of it, so we are sending it off to the salvation army and buying a new one. Oh, yes we do like the smell of fresh, so hang cedar garland from Costco on our stairs and fresh wreaths. They make the house smell heavenly, and we have the convenience of an artificial tree. No lights to hang on it, no needles dropping, we can put it up December 1st and it still looks good on New Years when we take it down. ;):)
 
When I am ruler of the world, I will ban fake Christmas trees and colored lights. And fruit cakes.
 
duncanapple said:
<snip>

but its probably a lot "greener" to own a fake tree vs cutting down/transporting/getting rid of a real tree every year.

<another little snip>
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I was actually curious about this myself. Yes I bought a fake, pre-lit tree - $47 at KMart :D. I convinced myself that I went fake because it was more environmentally sound (rather than admitting that I just didn't want to deal with the hassles of a real tree, lol). But is it actually true?
 
MacVixen said:
I was actually curious about this myself. Yes I bought a fake, pre-lit tree - $47 at KMart :D. I convinced myself that I went fake because it was more environmentally sound (rather than admitting that I just didn't want to deal with the hassles of a real tree, lol). But is it actually true?
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it is if you re-use your average fake tree for 20 years or more.
if you only use it for 6 years, a real tree is about 3-times more 'green', at least according to this NYT article
In the most definitive study of the perennial real vs. fake question, an environmental consulting firm in Montreal found that an artificial tree would have to be reused for more than 20 years to be greener than buying a fresh-cut tree annually. The calculations included greenhouse gas emissions, use of resources and human health impacts.

“The natural tree is a better option,” said Jean-Sebastien Trudel, founder of the firm, Ellipsos, that released the independent study last year.

The annual carbon emissions associated with using a real tree every year were just one-third of those created by an artificial tree over a typical six-year lifespan. Most fake trees also contain polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, which produces carcinogens during manufacturing and disposal.
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As the article points out, there are many variables at work, one of the major ones being where one lives and where the trees are from. the above number are from canada, where real trees are more readily available, but probably apply to a large part of the US, where most real trees come from local farms.
the near totality of real trees are farmed nowadays. it means that forests are maintained and expanded, and that are generally produced locally (relatively speaking), in land that would not be particularly productive otherwise.

at the end of the holidays, used trees are recycled (wood, compost, mulch, pulp etc.) and are often picked up and mulched free of charge by the city (they are in NYC). Old artificial trees are non-recyclable and end up in landfills.

i know I got mine (organically grown in pennsylvania) at the local farm market, from the boy scouts, and brought it home with a shopping cart.
 
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Three years later (from the last post in this thread) and we just picked up our next "pre-lit" tree in a long line of artificial trees. I'll never go back to a real tree. Pre-lit is a bonus, but granted, the lights need to stay lit. However if they ever die, there is nothing that I know of that prevents you from removing the lights and putting up new ones.

What really bothers me are those strings of lights that are supposed to stay lit when one burns out? Hah. I've got a couple of strands of those that when wiggled, half the strand goes out. :( They are so cheap, when they give us issues, we just recycle them, and buy new. :)
 
I had a tree and light exactly like that when I was a kid. Thanks for the wonderful trip down memory lane.
 
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