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I am about finished cutting all of the pre strung Xmas lights on my 9 ft tree. If it wasn't an expensive one from front gate I would have purchased a new one.

Never again. The next tree will be bulb less.

The repetitive questions from my 6 yr old in regards to when can we decorate the tree is also adding to the frustration level.

Tis the season.

This was me, last year with our 6' prelit. 8 hours. 8 freaking hours to clip each light and strand of wire from the damn thing.

You've been heard. Been there, done that. Never, ever again will we buy a prelit. And I caution everyone I know against them.

Good to know. To look at them you would think you just pull it out of the box, plug it in and Volia!, it's finished. But I know better now from hearing so many people say they've had problems with them.

I used to fasten every light to an individual branch on our real tree. Just part of my Christmas OCD I guess . The last year or two, I just wrap them around the tree and call it a day. It still looks fine, takes 10 minutes and the last time I checked Better Homes and Gardens wasn't asking to come photograph my tree anyway .

[This message edited by SI Staff at 9:09 PM, December 1st (Sunday)]

Oh yes never buy one like Bee this yr was my nightmare.

The first few yrs the tree was beautiful but then the issues started. I had a short in a few of the strands and all of the remaining lights were noticeably darker than the new strands.

Just a complete cluster. And H solution was leave the old lights on not lite and put the new ones on top. WTF.

Oh well I am finally done clipping all of the old lights.

And like Bee never ever, ever again.

Metamorphosis I would love to see your tree. maybe we can start another thread of Xmas trees.

I went with the "wrap a new string on and leave the old ones on unlit" method. One the new ones are lit you can't tell unless you look really closely.

We did exactly the same thing tonight, peacelovetea.

That was the last thing that my ex did as a house project before he walked out the door, sooooooo glad it didn't wait until the next Christmas when I was by myself.

(come to think of it, maybe that was the real reason he left!!! )

Metamorphosis I would love to see your tree. maybe we can start another thread of Xmas trees.

There's a holiday decoration thread going in F&G where you can post your tree pics!

DD and I are allergic to Christmas trees. Last week I ordered a prelit tree. Oops. I like the "not plugging them in and using other lights instead" method. If the lights give me a hard time, then that is the route I'm going.

Sorry to here you had to go through that.

I honestly have a fake tree that is gorgeous, and it's now 20+ years old, so no prestrung lights, my patience for making the regular lights work is at zero anymore. Last year, and the prior two years, I pull the lights out and plug them in if they don't light I toss them out, and go get new ones from Dollar General, it's just not worth it.

Now this year? I may not even get a tree up. It's such a short time between Thanksgivning and Christmas, and it's a gian project to get the tree up, and a giant project to get the tree down.....I may just skip it.

Yep, that was us last year, too, ok4know. The lights worked fine the first year. After that, there was no way to figure out which plugs went into what sockets.There was a zillion plugs and sockets. It is a nine foot tree. All the color codes had fallen off the plugs and sockets. For the past few years we would be lucky if we matched up half of the lights and were able to get them lit.

Last year MrSister was having a meltdown and wanted to throw the tree out. The tree is beautiful and I like it. We just put on our own strings of lights last year on top of the ones pre-strung. After Christmas, it took about a week a few hours every day to cut all those damn lights off. Way more than 8 hours.

I will never get a pre-lit tree again. I was at Costco behind a man who just purchased a pre-lit tree. I wanted to scream at him "Return it NOW! Please for your sanity, return it now."

This year will be much smoother.

We got 2 years out of the attached lights. It was a nightmare. FWH wanted to drape new lights over the old ones, too. I vetoed that idea because I thought it would call more attention to the burned out lights. Sounds like I might have been wrong???

Oh well, it was a bonding experience for FWH and I. Haha.

But seriously, don't ever buy a prelit tree.

Bee, you didn't notice the unlit strings unless you were right next to the tree. Up close it didn't look that great but it also didn't look awful. You would definitely not want the tree like that every year.

I ALWAYS add extra lights to my pre-lit tree anyway.