Pre-lit trees - whomever (whoever? lol) invented them?

Until one section dies and you have to throw the whole tree out.,

A few years ago, ours died.  DH spent 3 days troubleshooting to find the problem before declaring that we were throwing it out and getting a new one.  This prelit occasionally has had a bulb burn out, but the rest don't go out fortunately.  We just set it up and changed out some bulbs that were burned out.

Mmwah! 😘

I don’t trust prelit. I have a lot of tree and I put a lot of lights on them but it takes about 15 minutes to put the lights on. I don’t worry about the way I haphazardly string them because I have SO MANY ornaments on my trees you really can’t tell/see the cords when I am done and they look beautiful.

I regularly have string lights that die and I have to toss- I couldn’t handle dealing with that on a tree.

Ours lasted 15 years and the branches broke before the lights stopped working!

I bought one of those $20 light clicker gun things that you plug the non working section into and click it a bunch of times and it makes it work again! It works like a charm. I got it on clearance after Christmas so it was half price. Best Christmas money spent ever.

ETA: Light Fixer Tool

RIGHT?!?

Growing up Jewish, we of course never had a tree, so I didn't have any idea of all the pitfalls of a live tree and lights. I also never 'got' the Santa anticipation thing either since I never lived it in my childhood, but that's really not relevant to this story . Anyhow, I married a Christian. We would get a gorgeous live Noble Fir each year. He would only lay lights on the branches, not wrap them. I'm particular and they needed to be wrapped IMO. He wouldn't wrap, so he happily allowed me to string the lights every year. ALONE. It would take the better part of an afternoon, sometimes longer if we got a 10' + tree (only a couple of years). I had to wear gloves because I got an allergic reaction to touching the needles. It was a pain.

After 15 years of THAT, I kept threatening to get an pre-lit tree. Our teenage son nixed that, and did 'Jewish guilt' really well....so we continued onward. His first year at college his dad and I shopped around a lot and got a really nice pre-lit tree. Son came home from college, the tree was lit, undecorated in the living room. We talked about what luck we had finding such a perfectly balanced tree that year! Did he approve? Doesn't it look great? All that. I thought he'd realize it wasn't live, but he didn't.

The next afternoon the three of us set out to start decorating the tree. After about 15 minutes of son hanging ornaments and STILL not realizing that the tree was fake (with little hints thrown all over the place - I think he was jet lagged cuz he didn't catch them) I mentioned that the needles felt kind of dry to me. Asked him if they did to him too. They did, so I suggested that he get a watering can and give it some water. He climbed head-first under the tree - by this time the phrase 'about to bust a gut' is totally apropos. The tree skirt was covering the tell-tale base. He pulled it back and asked us how the heck he was supposed to water with this 'new stand.' OMG, I thought I'd die trying to hold the laughter in until FINALLY the light bulb moment went off! That was 12 years ago and I still love telling that story

His dad and I split up a couple of years later and sometimes I miss having a tree. There's just something so peaceful and cozy about curling up on the sofa in the evening with some music on, looking at a beautifully decorated and lit tree in the corner of the room. 

I’ve spent the last two hours trying to figure out why some branches on our 2yo tree aren’t lighting up. I’m not loving my prelit tree right now.

DH just cut out the section and restrung it with new lights. 

I don’t do pre-lit trees so I can’t answer. but for your title, always remember. Who does the action. Whom receives the action. Something I learned from my dad in middle school and always remember.

Just wanted to say I’m Jewish and I grew up with a Christmas tree, both of my parents (both Jewish, and on opposite coasts) grew up with a Christmas tree, and at least one of my grandparents (not sure about the rest) grew up with a Christmas tree. And his grandfather was a rabbi.

Bad Jews all around. MichyM

We used a fake tree for several years, (because I figured out I was allergic to the real trees) but it wasn't prelit. We loved it. It was one that you had to put each branch on at a time. I thought it was too hard for me to manage by myself, so this year, (since my dh died after we put our tree up last year) I'm using a prelit tree. My son's family got a new bigger one, and gave me the smaller one they used only one year. I think it will be perfect for me, and a lot easier to put up. This also allowed me to downsize a lot of stuff (lights, and extra ornaments.) My kids and grandkids will be visiting for Thanksgiving and one of their jobs is to help grandma get the tree up!

I SO agree with you.. Whoever invented them should get the highest praise there is...lol.. I have had a few trees not last that long (pre-lit)  but two of them, both have lasted longer than 10 years.  So with that.. if I have to replace once in a blue moon it is SOOOO worth it.  I bought my new one last year and it is even BETTER.. all the wires are in the pole.. connect the poles and boom lights up.

I am most excited about using these plugs this year for our Christmas lights. I love driving up to our home all lit up, but that so rarely happens because either no one else remembers to turn everything on or we're all gone off together. Finally I'll get to see it lit up on a regular basis! It's the little things.