The Christmas Tree Makeover

Two years ago we scored a great deal on a prelit Christmas tree in an after Christmas sale. This year after we had put up the tree and decorated it, the lights started to burn out. The first plan was to fix the lights with a Wal-mart light fixing gun. No good. I think that gun is just a con to get you to spend $20 and hours fiddling with the lights! The second plan was to ignore the 50 or so lights that wouldn't light. That worked until almost half the lights wouldn't light. The third (Michelle approved) and successful plan was to un-decorate the tree, strip off the lights, and put new LED lights (Jeff approved) on.

The before picture.

Without the ornaments.
Removing the lights.

More light removal.

Bad lights!

New lights.

First level of lights.

This is me realizing that we need more lights. The ten boxes I bought from the first store only did the bottom of the tree! We proceeded to 4 other stores to buy all the lights we could find.

Putting the tree back together or playing Christmas tree?

Almost done.

Final stretch.

All done with lights. Final count: 1440 LED lights, 24 boxes, 4 Fry's stores, 80% more efficient.

The left over boxes. Finished and decorated!