Christmas Decorating ?

[TechWife]

I am thinking ahead, I know. I need to get pre-lit artificial garland for our house this year. Some will be indoors and some outdoors.

There are large price differences between brands.  We've never had pre-lit garland before, but in our experience a prelit tree lasts about 4 years before the lights don't function, even with LED lights. We usually buy at places like Target or Lowes. I am wondering if I upgrade to a "name" brand if the cost will pay for a better quality as far as appearance and durability. Does anyone have input with the different brands/pricepoints as far as these two issues go? I'd hate to pay 2 x the price and have it last the same amount of time as the less expensive options last.

I am comparing this, which is incandescent:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Holiday-Living-Indoor-Outdoor-Pre-lit-9-ft-Colorado-Pine-Garland-with-White-Incandescent-Lights-Lights/999916593

to this, which is LED and looks like a fuller garland (the price is $32 when I put it in my cart):

https://www.lowes.com/pd/National-Tree-Company-Outdoor-Pre-Lit-9-Ft-Fir-Garland-with-with-with-White-Led-Lights-Lights/1000776122

I need a total of 63 feet for outside and 45 feet for the inside. The outside needs to be in 9' lengths, but I can adapt the inside. I want all of the outside garlands to match each other and all of the inside garlands to match each other, but the inside and outside don't necessarily have to match each other.

I don't think the price difference really accounts for the difference between LED and incandescent because I haven't found LED pre-lit Christmas trees to last any longer than incandescent pre-lit trees. Any input on price & quality?

[Annie G]

When I look, the first link doesn’t show a price and says it’s out of stock, so I can’t comment on price comparison.  But I will say that when we switched to LED our electric bill was no longer high in December.    We’ve never had a tree or other lights only last four years, whether regular or LED. That’s not a very long life. Last tree was from Walmart and was quite cheap, but has LED lights. We’ve had six years out of it so far.  Previous to that our Hobby Lobby incandescent light tree lasted us about 15 years.  Dh has always turned the tree on when he gets up at 5 and off when we go to bed around ten, seven days a week, for about five weeks a year. 
 

Do you like the color of the LED lights? A lot of folks do not, so maybe that’s how you choose.  Hope you find the right garland for your new house.

[itsheresomewhere]

At the end of Christmas, I bought the led garland from Costco.  It seems to be well made.  I really like it. My other garland was 15 years old and I put led lights on it myself when we bought it.  The lights were still going but the garland was falling apart.  
 

Balsam Hill makes a very nice garland.  They normally have a sale near Thanksgiving that is very good.  My neighbor has one from them.  Going on 7 years of use and still looks new.  

[gardenmom5]

I've been looking at trees for awhile - our current tree had issues with lights from the get go.  We ended up cutting them all off, and putting new LED's on.  And . . . the top section doesn't fit correctly, so it tilts.  Dh and I both detest perfectly conical bushy trees. (we were driving past a few tree farms yesterday on our way where we were going - and just hating them.)  You can't hang ornaments on them - so we've been unhappy with costco's trees for several years.  Or I'd find trees I like, but they only come in a 6 1/2' tree.  Please, I downsized from an 11' tree (which I occasionally miss.) to a 9' tree.  I bought one today - that looks promising.  Ordered from home depot.  And even though last year I was ready to fork out $1000 for a tree from balsam hill (we didn't find any we liked enough to even try out) - it was very reasonably priced.  We'll see how it is when it arrives.  It's more open, so you can hang ornaments on it and let them freely hang.

[gardenmom5]

1 hour ago, itsheresomewhere said:

At the end of Christmas, I bought the led garland from Costco.  It seems to be well made.  I really like it. My other garland was 15 years old and I put led lights on it myself when we bought it.  The lights were still going but the garland was falling apart.  
 

Balsam Hill makes a very nice garland.  They normally have a sale near Thanksgiving that is very good.  My neighbor has one from them.  Going on 7 years of use and still looks new.  

Is it battery or plug in?  I was thinking about that.

[itsheresomewhere]

6 minutes ago, gardenmom5 said:

Is it battery or plug in?  I was thinking about that.

Mine is plug in.