Did Anyone Else Have To Decorate Their Xmas Tree Twice This Weekend?

[Wish Upon A Star]

Saturday we set up our Xmas tree, DH strung all the lights, we decorated and the tree looked beautiful.

Sunday when I went to turn on the tree lights they wouldn't go on. DH tried changing the fuses, checking the individual lights, nothing worked . . . .Soooooooooooooooooo

We undecorated the entire tree and DH went out to Home Depot and purchased more lights. After he got back home we redecorated the tree . . . .I guess the old Xmas lights decided they didn't want to work anymore . . .

 

[piratesmate]

I'm sorry that happened to you! As much as I enjoy decorating my tree - doing it twice on the same weekend isn't fun!

About 10 years ago our tree stand sprung a leak while DH was away. My dad ran to the rescue & helped me get it down, cut off another piece of the trunk (it had sealed over again) and put it back up. Unfortunately, I had to do all the decorating & UNdecorating myself. So I can feel for you!

 

[tkyes]

Ugh! I would have been in tears! It took us about 5 hours to do our tree so I can't imagine having to do it again!

Glad everything is working now!


tamie

 

[dawgfan]

My mother in law decorated her tree with my kids this weekend and they all stepped back to admire their work....just as the whole thing came crashing down. The stand would not hold it. They had to take all the stuff off and redo everything.

 

[MICKEY88]

Originally posted by Wish Upon A Star
Saturday we set up our Xmas tree, DH strung all the lights, we decorated and the tree looked beautiful.

Sunday when I went to turn on the tree lights they wouldn't go on. DH tried changing the fuses, checking the individual lights, nothing worked . . . .Soooooooooooooooooo

We undecorated the entire tree and DH went out to Home Depot and purchased more lights. After he got back home we redecorated the tree . . . .I guess the old Xmas lights decided they didn't want to work anymore . . .

didn't any of the lights work.......???

wow...I bought this nifty gadget this year for fixing lights...you plug the sstring of lights in to it and pull the trigger 4 times.....it sends a controlled pulse of electricity thru the line and fixes the lights...I was hesitant to buy it,figured it sounded too simple..it actually works......I was amazed..

 

[Evil Princess]

So THATS why my mom always insists on plugging in each strand of the lights while untangling them!

Seriously, I feel your pain. When I was younger, our tree fell down FOUR TIMES throughout december. We realized that the tree was actually growing crooked, so it wasn't supported by the lopsided trunk. My dad actually had to saw the thing in half in order to get it to stand. It was a cute lil midget tree

 

[TerriP]

I feel your pain. I was almost done putting our tree up when my husband came home and took a look at it...and started laughing. I asked him what was so funny and he asked me when was the last time I stepped back from the tree and took a good look at it. Well, I did...and guess what....I had screwed up some of the branches, putting some short ones in the middle and some longer ones on the top. Our tree was fat on the bottom, skinny in the middle, and fat on top!!!

I had to take it apart and start over. Take my advice, if you're putting the tree up alone, step back and make sure it's looking good every so often.

 

[kimber79]

How un-fun that sounds......

My grandma just passed away Sept 20......so this Christmas is going to be tough, but I have a funny story to remind me of her love of Christmas. Every year for the last I don't know how many years we have always gone to the same tree farm and cut trees, and always brought grandma with us. The man that owns the tree farm never called grandma by her "real name" he always called her Mrs. Fussy! My mom always decorated grandma's tree for her.......grandma would allow no one else to do this! One year (some years ago) we searched and searched for the "perfect tree" for grandma and finally found and cut it. Mom went over and decorated as usual and the tree looked really nice! Well the next day.........grandma called mom and told her "I don't like the tree, can you come and undecorate it so I can take it back". Mom did and grandma brought the tree back and got a different one!! We went and cut trees yesterday, and the man that owns the farm came over to talk to us and tell us how sorry he was that we lost Mrs. Fussy. He told us he would never forget that day that grandma returned her tree.........in all his years she is the ONLY one to have ever returned a Christmas tree!!

 

[Jasminesmommy]

I had to redecorate. My cat/kitten went up the tree and knocked off every single ornament from top to bottom between last night and this evening. Darn Cats. and yesterday they knocked it down. This is gonna be a fun christmas or long one.

 

[GIGGLES266]

This is too funny! I did in fact have to decorate our tree at work twice on Friday. We share a lobby with another company and have joint space in the basement where all of the Christmas supplies are kept. Some one brought up the tree for the lobby, the entire time I am decorating the tree I am muttering to our receptionist that the tree doesn't look right, commenting on how I thought I had purchased a tree last year that had the lights attached, and just generally belly-aching. Once I got the entire thing decorated I thought I would make a trip downstairs just to be sure that I had not missed any ornaments. What did I stumble across? The box that had the name of our company on it-holding the tree I had purchased last year! The person that had brought the tree up had brought the tree for the other company in error. Needless to say I had a busy afternoon undecorating, taking the first tree down, then putting up the right tree and decorating that one!

 

[jwsqrdplus2]

I have never had to decorate a tree twice in the same day, but I did have to take down my tree and all of my Christmas decorations on Christmas Eve one year. I was deploying to Saudi for 3+ months on Dec 26th and I was spending Christmas day itself with a wonderful family (I was 23 and single at the time) who had adopted me for the holidays.

 

[Wish Upon A Star]

MICKEY88

Out of the 4 different sets of lights on the tree (150 lights each set) none of them would work. They were all plugged into each other . . .After we took them off and DH was restringing the new ones I plugged the old ones in and realized that there must be a short in one of the wires . . .because when I plugged them in, they lit up, but when I moved them they shut off . . .I guess it was just time for us to get new lights . . .Wish I knew before hand . . .but all is well now . . .Xmas tree is back to normal . . .

 

[jfulcer]

Ugh. Before going out and buying new lights (well, next time at least), buy one of these:

If the strand is blinking on and off when you move it around, you probably only had a loose bulb. It's common when you've used it them for a few years - they just work loose. The fuses could have been bad or loose also....

If the whole strand does not light up, one of the light testers I linked above (sold at Target and tons of other places) will test each individual bulb, allow you to check the whole strand without unplugging each bulb, and will also test the fuses that are in the light set.

It's a lot nicer buying a pack of 10 replacement bulbs for 99 cents and spending an hour figuring it out than spending the cash on all new lights. But on the flip side, now you at least have new lights.

That's just my 2 cents...

 

[MICKEY88]

Originally posted by Wish Upon A Star
MICKEY88

Out of the 4 different sets of lights on the tree (150 lights each set) none of them would work. They were all plugged into each other . . .After we took them off and DH was restringing the new ones I plugged the old ones in and realized that there must be a short in one of the wires . . .because when I plugged them in, they lit up, but when I moved them they shut off . . .I guess it was just time for us to get new lights . . .Wish I knew before hand . . .but all is well now . . .Xmas tree is back to normal . . .

sounds like a loose bulb....

 

[MICKEY88]

Here's the new gadget I found....

Quick Fix Trigger
Most miniature Holiday Light set failures occur when an individual bulb "shunt" fails to energize. These shunts are energized when a filament burns out. This causes a section if lights, usually 35 or 50, to go out instead of just one light bulb. This is because miniature light sets are wired in "series" and electricity must flow through each bulb, to the next, for them to light.The LightKeeper Quick Fix Trigger sends a shaped, electrical pulse through the defective bulb, clearing the shunt. This allows it to operate properly. The current can then flow through the light set completing the circuit and illuminating the other bulbs. The Patented LightKeeper is the first product to FIX defects in a light set with the squeeze of a trigger.


Why Do Light Sets Fail?
Light set failure can be traced to an interruption of electricity flowing through the light set.
The interruption of flow can be caused by any of the following:
1) A burned out bulb with a defective shunt inside the bulb, the # 1 cause of light set failure.

2) Missing or loose miniature bulbs.

3) A broken or twisted wire at the base of the miniature bulb.

4) Safety fuse(s) that have been tripped due to overloading current.

Inspect the light set for any missing bulbs or obvious connection problems. End-to End or String-A-Long Miniature light sets are designed to allow only specific number to be connected together. Most Manufacturers recommend no more than 3 Sets or 300 bulbs total be connected. Connecting more sets together than the Manufacturers recommend will cause the fuse to blow. This is most easily detected because all the light strings connected together will be unlit. If you know this to be the problem, visually check the fuses located in the plug of the light set located closest to the power source.

LIGHTKEEPER