Pre-lit or unlit artificial tree?

[Night Elf]

I'm thinking about replacing my 7.5 foot tree. It's unlit and we've had it for years. We got it because my youngest was growing taller and she felt the tree should be much taller than her so we donated our 6 ft tree and got the 7.5. Now I'm ready to downsize again. So the question becomes do I want a prelit tree or stick with an unlit one? I can't help but wonder what happens when the lights on a prelit tree stop working. I guess we could just put our own strands on it but then the tree would be full of unlit bulbs and I think that might look bad.

What say the Hive?

And no, we don't want a real tree.

[KrissiK]

Prelit.

[Angie in VA]

Prelit. 

[Night Elf]

Wow, the first 3 responses all say prelit. 🙂

I found a couple of really good deals I could go buy today. Both are 6.5 ft. Will that make that much of a difference from a 7.5 tree? They're both full like the one I have now. They aren't slim trees. I wanted a 6 ft tree but I can't find one!

[Annie G]

Prelit. And yes, a 6.5 foot tree is noticeably  smaller than 7.5.

Edited November 23, 2018 by Annie G

[MrsMommy]

I will be the voice of dissension and say unlit. We bought a prelit tree, and started losing big sections of lights way sooner than we should have. And taking off the old strands so we could continue using the tree was a HUGE pain. I also don't think prelit trees have enough lights, and they always look kind of bare because of it.

[Katy]

Unlit.  The lights always go before you're ready to get rid of the tree.

[SKL]

I vote pre-lit.  Personally the only reason I have a fake tree is for convenience, so I might as well add on the (very reasonably priced) convenience of not having to string lights.

We did have one that had a section of the lights go out after some years.  So at that point we just strung some other lights.  No regrets.  Our next tree was still pre-lit.

[HomeAgain]

In our house, we've had an unlit tree for the past several years.  I picked it out, it was cheaper, and dh didn't like it but he was willing to go along.  However, we replaced it for this year with a prelit tree.  He is the one putting it up (I'm allergic to the fake trees/flame retardant chemicals), and he picked this one out.  He also picked out a pedal switch to hook it into so he doesn't have to get under the branches. 🙂 If the lights die we'll just string sets on until the whole tree gives out again.

[gardenmom5]

prelit LED.  i hate stringing lights.

[Lady Florida.]

38 minutes ago, MrsMommy said:

I will be the voice of dissension and say unlit. We bought a prelit tree, and started losing big sections of lights way sooner than we should have. And taking off the old strands so we could continue using the tree was a HUGE pain. I also don't think prelit trees have enough lights, and they always look kind of bare because of it.

We have a prelit and I would get another one when we downsize. Last year was our third year and one of the light strands was out. I posted about it on facebook and the consensus was that they start going after three years and you just throw a separate strand on there. That's what we did and it looked just fine. You couldn't tell where we added a strand. I don't know if there will be any more strands out this year. We won't be setting ours up until next weekend.

I say prelit even with the knowledge that the lights don't last as long as you'd like them to. It's just so much easier.

[sarahbobeara]

Unlit. Our pre-lit lasted about 3 years before the middle section went out. DH spent 1/2 a day stripping the lights out of that tree, and he probably won't let another prelit tree come in our house again!

 

[PeterPan]

My mother has a prelit tree she's had for years upon years with no problems but it seems like the lights on the older trees lasted longer. Now I think that 3 years (or sooner) is pretty common. If that happens, are you going to want to replace the tree? I don't think the spent bulbs necessarily show, but I'm with you that it would bug me. I bought two trees this past year in a "stop having asthma and getting sick" tree conversion. It didn't help btw, as I still got sick. At least it wasn't from the trees? Anyways, I went with unlit, because I've strung trees for 20 years now and just don't find it that big a deal. Maybe it's not to you either?

I read this online and it's now the way I do my trees. I string them VERTICALLY, zig zagging back and forth, in and out, moving from bottom to top. Then reverse and come down. Makes pulling the lights off a SNAP because they literally just pull off, no spinning or walking endlessly around the tree, lol.

I think do what you want. Some of these new, prelit, flocked trees are really cute! They're just maybe a bit more on the disposable side.

[SamanthaCarter]

We are contemplating gettting an artificial tree, but the idea of having to throw them in the landfill after five years or so really bothers me. If we do it, we’ll buy unlit. 

[lmrich]

Wow - I had my last prelit artificial tree for 10 + years. Some lights went out but not enough to toss it. We only replaced it because it was our tree in our mountain house which we sold. It does not fit in our home.  I am not tossing it, either. We are thinking about moving one day so I will hold on to it since it is safely stored. Otherwise I would donate it. 

[Chelli]

Unlit.

The prelit ones become unlit ones within a few years anyway. 😀

Plus, there are never enough lights on the prelit ones for my taste anyway, so I'd be stringing more lights as is which defeats the purpose of prelit.

[Ellie]

We waited on prelit until we found one with LED lights, because those don't burn out.

[Farrar]

I say unlit for the reasons above. Our tree is still great - and they don't make another one like it anymore. But two years ago I had to cut the lights off it because too many had gone. It was such a PITA. When this tree does finally go, I'm definitely getting unlit. Trees aren't cheap. And I hate the planned obsolescence of buying something you know will break that soon when it should have a longer lifespan. 

[MrsMommy]

4 minutes ago, Farrar said:

I say unlit for the reasons above. Our tree is still great - and they don't make another one like it anymore. But two years ago I had to cut the lights off it because too many had gone. It was such a PITA. When this tree does finally go, I'm definitely getting unlit. Trees aren't cheap. And I hate the planned obsolescence of buying something you know will break that soon when it should have a longer lifespan. 

I also cut the lights off of our prelit tree...total PITA. It's been...at least eight years, I think, since I did that, and we're still using the tree, and I am not kidding when I say that I find pieces of the original strings every single year when I put it up. It's become a holiday tradition, and we all laugh about it, but still... 🙂

[Night Elf]

Oh well, I went ahead and bought a $60 pre-lit tree. It was super easy to put up. If it only lasts a few years that's okay. We were happy to not have to string lights.

HOWEVER!, our gold star won't work on it anymore. It's a light up star meant to plug into the end of a string of lights and the pre-lit tree doesn't have that plug. So I tried just sitting it up there and the star is too heavy. Our angel is too heavy as well. I'll look for a lighter alternative but if I can't find something, I'll be going old school and using a cereal box and aluminum foil. Ugh!

[Farrar]

2 hours ago, MrsMommy said:

I also cut the lights off of our prelit tree...total PITA. It's been...at least eight years, I think, since I did that, and we're still using the tree, and I am not kidding when I say that I find pieces of the original strings every single year when I put it up. It's become a holiday tradition, and we all laugh about it, but still... 🙂

Same for the last two years. Oy, I can't imagine still finding bits in six more, but... yeah, I could see that.

Last year, we left it lit. I color coded and tied off the ends and twist tied some important bits before taking the three parts apart. If it didn't work, I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks when I put it up and we'll take the lights off and redo them. But if it did... we have a "prelit" tree again for a couple of years. My cousin has tons of storage so she leaves hers decorated and has some giant bag contraption that she puts over it all before putting it in storage. I'm jealous of that.

[ktgrok]

2 hours ago, Night Elf said:

Oh well, I went ahead and bought a $60 pre-lit tree. It was super easy to put up. If it only lasts a few years that's okay. We were happy to not have to string lights.

HOWEVER!, our gold star won't work on it anymore. It's a light up star meant to plug into the end of a string of lights and the pre-lit tree doesn't have that plug. So I tried just sitting it up there and the star is too heavy. Our angel is too heavy as well. I'll look for a lighter alternative but if I can't find something, I'll be going old school and using a cereal box and aluminum foil. Ugh!

last year walmart had some that were lightweight, lit up, and used a battery so no issue with plugging them into a string of lights. I bet they have them this year as well. 

[livetoread]

Sort of off topic, but I have found a cheap, easy way to string, unstring, and store tree lights. I got two long rolls of wrapping paper and wound the strands around them. To put the lights on, I just walk around the tree unrolling as I go. Actually it’s even easier to have someone on the other side of the tree and you just hand the roll back and forth while unrolling. When you are ready to take them off, just find the end, start rolling them off the tree and onto the roll, and then store the rolls. They have never gotten tangled.

[PeterPan]

2 hours ago, Night Elf said:

I'll look for a lighter alternative

My MIL and dd made these one year, and my MIL put one on top of her tree. I thought it looked very nice!!

5:163D Paper Snowflake Tutorial

[PeterPan]

36 minutes ago, livetoread said:

Sort of off topic, but I have found a cheap, easy way to string, unstring, and store tree lights. I got two long rolls of wrapping paper and wound the strands around them. To put the lights on, I just walk around the tree unrolling as I go. Actually it’s even easier to have someone on the other side of the tree and you just hand the roll back and forth while unrolling. When you are ready to take them off, just find the end, start rolling them off the tree and onto the roll, and then store the rolls. They have never gotten tangled.

Ok, this is kinda cool. You're winding them around the cylinder/width or the long length? And why two rolls? 

[Liz CA]

These guys are having a 60% off sale until midnight tonight:

https://www.treeclassics.com/Wisconsin-Fraser-Fir-Artificial-Christmas-Tree-p/ffr-t.htm?1=1&CartID=0

I just ordered an unlit one.

Edited November 24, 2018 by Liz CA

[HS Mom in NC]

We go with unlit because with all the females in the household we've had to take turns deciding what the decor would be each year.  Sometimes white lights, sometimes colored. Also, the lights tend to go out, or at least part of the lights go out, and then you want to get a new tree, which is wasteful to me.  If I have a fake tree I want it to last a looooooooong time. 

[livetoread]

27 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Ok, this is kinda cool. You're winding them around the cylinder/width or the long length? And why two rolls? 

I wind them around the cylinder starting at the bottom and roughly going up and then back down. It doesn’t have to be perfect at all - I cross over and overlap etc. I have two rolls because I use a lot of lights, lol.

[Katy]

My last two prelit trees were LED lights.  Both stopped working.  I replaced all the fuses.  Still didn't work.  The first tree got replaced.  The second one was meant to be a buy-it-for-life or at least 20 years tree, so I spent a day stripping the lights out.  I'll never buy a prelit tree again. 

I DO wind the lights down every branch and use different strands on the different sections of the tree separately so I can LEAVE them on year round, even when the tree is in storage.  That way I don't have to wind lights every year. After the first year it has all the advantages of a prelit tree without the disadvantages. And if one strand gets a short and stops working I can replace one strand instead of the whole tree.

[Carrie12345]

We just replaced ours yesterday. I did NOT want prelit.  The options for unlit were very few and, imo, quite ugly. So we got a prelit. On the bright side (har har,) we can switch between white and multi lights, which is nice. As long as the little kids don't push the button to blink, fade, or any of the other obnoxious settings!

[Night Elf]

1 hour ago, Carrie12345 said:

We just replaced ours yesterday. I did NOT want prelit.  The options for unlit were very few and, imo, quite ugly. So we got a prelit. On the bright side (har har,) we can switch between white and multi lights, which is nice. As long as the little kids don't push the button to blink, fade, or any of the other obnoxious settings!

That's what happened to me. I looked online at local stores like Walmart and Home Depot and there were very few 6 ft trees. I had to settle for a 6.5 ft tree and pre-lit was my only option. I could have ordered a tree from a company that mailed it to me but I really wanted my tree up this weekend. It was important to me. Important enough to give the pre-lit a try. 

At my thrift store, we have some donated trees that that were pre-lit that no longer work. I sold one already. She said she'd put her own lights on it. So they don't necessarily have to go to the landfill. Most of our pre-lit trees do work. They're priced too high though, IMHO. I spent less on mine and it was new.

[frogger]

So we sadly, are just getting around to our Christmas tree due to the earthquake and our pre lit wasn't a pre-lit anymore. So I'm going to try one of these https://www.amazon.com/Keeper-01201-Complete-Fixing-Miniature/dp/B000R8KBOK/ref=pd_aw_lpo_bs_img_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=8395P5ZRG4HM8WWGXWWJ

 

I remembered this thread and also remembered nobody had mentioned this so thought I'd mention it. We will see how difficult it is today.

[KungFuPanda]

Prelit. It’s just so much easier. I have one strand out on my prelit tree. It’s STILL easier to add lights to that section that it is to light the entire tree each year. 

[gardenmom5]

pre-lit LED (use less electricity.)

remember there is a big difference between "cool/bright white" and "warm white".

and I can't believe how much shorter my 9' is than my 11'.  sometimes I want an 11' - and sometimes I want a 7'.

[Garga]

On 11/23/2018 at 5:27 PM, SamanthaCarter said:

We are contemplating gettting an artificial tree, but the idea of having to throw them in the landfill after five years or so really bothers me. If we do it, we’ll buy unlit. 

 

I’ve had my tree for at least 20 years and we bought it used.  🙂. It’s a very nice, full tree and still looks like new. 

I’ve thought it would be nice to have pre-lit, but the bulbs would inevitably go out and after a couple of years, I’d be back to having an un-lit tree anyway.  Since I tend to keep trees for decades, it seems pointless to get a pre-lit just for 3 Christmases until the bulbs start to go out.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Garga

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Depends on the lights.  LED lights don't have filaments, so they don't burn out, they don't get even a tiny bit warm, and they change colors, from white to multi, with the turn of a little knob (or automatically, if you want them to change back and forth).  We got our pre-lit LED tree from Costco over 10 years ago, and we've never lost a single light.  It goes up and down in a fraction of the time, and the wires are well camouflaged.  I'll never go back to un-lit.