Pre-lit Christmas trees...do you have one?

[KimRaye]

I bought one of these for the first time but, I won't be using it until next year, I got 50% off. If you have one, do you like it? Have any lights gone out yet and, if so, what happens then? Do you have this 'circuit-breaker-like' box that hangs "inconspicuously" in the tree somewhere/somehow? I bought a 3-piece tree, seems ok to handle...better than ALL those individual branches! How many pieces in yours?

tia

 

[Cindy B]

I bought a prelit this year from target... I LOVE IT!

It was three piece, hinged design as well. The hinged design is nice because all you need to do is sort of spread it out.

As fro a circuit breaker, I don't see any in mine. the lights do come out to one green cord in the back, and you plug it in... I think each section got connected somehow with a small plug (daisy chain style), but nothing major. It came with some extra lights, but we didn't have any problems.

If you bought the Yatina 7.5 foot prelit from Target, it gets a thumbs up from me!

Just plug in !

 

[TigerBear]

I also love my prelit tree. Mine is not supposed to have a" 'circuit-breaker-like' box that hangs "inconspicuously" in the tree", however....the second year I put up the tree I could not figure out the right configuration of the all cords. My tree does have a lot of lights. To get it to work, I had to put a surge protector in the tree to plug in all of the cords. You have to look hard to see it, but it is kind of funny!

 

[KimRaye]

Thanks Cindy B! Do you recall how many lights are on yours?

I forgot to mention that mine is also hinged, it just "falls" into place when you put it in the stand....I thought that was soooooo cool! Just a little "shaping" after that.

 

[Cindy B]

The tree is still up (Bad me!), I do think the box said either 650 or 625!

We never had a problem with any of them shorting or anythign like that.

The hinged trees are awesome. This new tree replaced our first hinged tree.. that lasted 14 years! (it would have lasted longer if it didn't get rusty!)

 

[KimRaye]

Originally posted by TigerBear
I had to put a surge protector in the tree to plug in all of the cords. You have to look hard to see it, but it is kind of funny!

This thing is pretty big. It even hooks onto one of the rows of branches. It has a bulb tester, an on/off switch and, a dimmer switch. Quite elaborate......only thing "inconspicuous" about it tho is that it's GREEN! LOL

 

[Cindy B]

No, mine doesn't have that box... just a green extension cord that my DH put up through the bottom of the tree and up from the tree skirt.


That sounds pretty elaborate!

My parents bought a prelit tree also, and thier tree spins!

 

[Nutsy]

Ok Kim, so tell me........what the heck is a prelit C'mas tree??

We have optical fibre ones that I'd like, but pre-lit???

 

[KimRaye]

Just what it implies, Nutsy. The lights are already on the tree.

Cindy, I'm amazed they've had hinged trees for 14+ years! WHAT have I been wasting my time for all these years!?

Spins?? Not sure I want that kind of tree! LOL

 

[S. C.]

Glad you asked the question. We kind of alternate, sometimes we get a real tree and sometimes use the fake. We are in need of a new fake and was thinking of a pre-lit one.

 

[Aprille]

I have a 7 1/2 foot pre-lit rotating tree with 1000 lights. I love it. It's gorgeous. It's 3 pieces and the limbs are hinged. The tree looks very realistic.

This is the 3rd Christmas we've used it. I did have some light problems this year but was able to resolve them before putting on the ornaments. When one light goes out the whole strand goes out so I had to get a bulb tester and find the bad bulbs and replace them. I think on my tree each strand is about 50 bulbs so it's a little tedious to locate the bad bulb and I had 2 strands out. Once I got both strands lit the 1st one went out again. I wanted to cry! I found 2 more bad bulbs and never had any more problems with them. Once all the ornaments are on it would be very difficult to test for bad bulbs as many of the lights are deep into the tree.

I love my rotating tree. The only downside is that I have to decorate the entire tree and it takes tons of ornaments. Oh, and it's difficult to put presents under the tree because of the rotation and the fact that the lower limbs nearly reach the ground.

 

[luvmydogs]

We love our pre-lit tree. If for nothing else, it has really cut down on the arguments that dh and I have when stringing the lights. That alone is well worth it!

 

[dizneenut]

My tree is like Aprille's, except it is 6 1/2 ft. We don't rotate ours anymore, though. It kept rubbing against the fireplace and driving us crazy.
Had a few problems with bulbs, but DH got it worked out and all is well.
I love my prelit tree!!

 

[tkd lisa]

Ours is fiber optic with regular lights built in. There are two plugs, one for the regular lights, one for the fiber optics. One of the two has a rectangular box about 2 by 4 inches that controls something, not sure what! Dh put it up and was done in about 5 minutes!!

 

[TammyNC]

We purchased a pre-lit one for our Disney tree last year and love it. We went ahead and purchased another one this year for our main room that we will be using next year. I love not having to mess with the lights. I am sure you'll enjoy it.

 

[helenabear]

We bought a pre-lit tree this year as well (also got ours for 50% off) and I love it!!! It also comes in three peices and the cords just plug one into another and at the bottom, I have a foot pedal that you can touch to turn the tree off and on (I hope that made sense) so no circuit breaker. Supposedly now (like a lot of lights) if one bulb burns out, the rest stay on. I will have to see that with time I guess. It has 900 lights and it is 7.5 feet tall... absolutely gorgeous!!! I spend a lot of time "fluffing" trees and so by the time I am done I usually hate dealing with the ligths... this has taken a lot of work out of it for me! Enjoy the tree next year!

 

[ZachnElli]

We've had a prelit tree for 2 years now. We've had problems with it since about week 2. Ours sounds like Aprille's, 1000 lights, rotates, etc. We found that the problem is the base, so we don't plug it into the base anymore and use an extension cord to plug into the last piece and it works fine, but we can't rotate it that way. It has been a pain and I don't know if I'll get another one after this one. It is nice not having to mess with stringing the lights though!