If you are lighting an artificial Christmas tree that is in sections you can stop lighting at the end of each section so you will not have to take the lights off the tree each season. Just unplug each section after Christmas and store your tree sections in a tree storage bag. The best place to start lighting your tree is at the top of the tree or section and work your way down. It is easier to work in extra left over lights at the bottom of the tree where it is fuller. Your tree lighting will be much easier if you use string to string lights that have plugs on both ends. Start with the female plug end first and hide it near the tree trunk. Your goal is to set a light bulb on the tips of the tree branches. Work on one branch at a time to make sure that you do not miss any branches.

Work from the inside trunk of the tree to the outside branches. Keep the light wire on the bottom side of the branch, so it will not show, until you reach a light bulb. Now with a weave like motion put the light bulb over the top of a small branch. Now go back under the branches and run the cord on the bottom side again tell you reach the next bulb and repeat the weave. When you reach the end of the main branch you will wrap the light wire around the end branches. Wrap and weave your way back toward the trunk of the tree. When you are close to the trunk of the tree just jump the wire to the branch next to the branch you just completed. When the recommended number of light sets are used, and the last bulb is used weave the extra runner cord down the trunk of the tree. Now run a house hold extension cord up the trunk from the bottom of the Christmas tree and plug the light sets male end into the house hold extension cord. Start with a new section of lights where you left off. As you reach the end of the second set of lights leave enough of the light string so it will reach to the house holds extension cord you just ran up the trunk of the tree earlier. When all the plug openings in sockets are filled in the extension cord run another extension cord as you did earlier.

When you plug too many light strands into one extension cord or wall outlet, a large amount of electrical power must flow through all of them. This overloading of electrical power will reduce the life of the Christmas light bulbs. The safest way to plug in all your household extension cords is to use an outlet power breaker strip. Do not piggy back or put more than one extension cord into an outlet opening. When you use all the openings in one outlet go to the next nearest outlet. This will reduce the risk of overloading the light strand wires with too much electrical current and will extend the life of your lights.

My Lights Went Out !

If one light on a strand burns out the rest of the lights on the strand will remain on. To lengthen the life of your light sets replace all burned out lights as soon as they go out because they will put stress on the remaining bulbs. When a bulb is about to burn out they become dimmer and a little yellow in color. If all of the lights should ever go out it means there is a break in the circuit. If a group or strand of lights goes out you should check to make sure that all the plugs are plugged in tightly. Next check the fuses that are usually located in the plug-in part of the light strand. If the fuse is blown out it is a good idea to use another household extension cord as suggested above. Then check each of the unlit bulbs to make sure that they are in the socket correctly. If the problem is not found discard the light set and replace it with a new set. You can save a few of the good bulbs to use as replacement bulbs in the future.