Three years ago, driven by laziness, we decided to go all out and purchase a pre-lit Christmas tree. We looked around for one that we liked the looks of and that fit our budget. After much searching we finally decided on a Martha Stewart pre-lit tree that we found on sale at K-Mart for $79.99. It was a little expensive for our tastes but we figured on getting at least 20-years worth of Christmas joy out of it. That's a picture of it on the left.
The first year we put it up we thought we were really something. Within minutes of getting it out of the box it was up, plugged in, and looking mighty fine. We quickly added our other decorations to it, bulbs, ribbons, assorted ornaments, candy canes, and bows; we felt like the Who's in Who-Ville as we proudly stood in the living room with the kids, turned out all of the living room lights and basked in the glory of our brilliant, sparkling, six and a half feet of plastic evergreen delight.
"Daddy, it's beautiful!", my youngest daughter exclaimed.
"Yes, honey, I know, isn't it wonderful?"
We were very proud of our Martha Stewart pre-lit Christmas tree that year and boasted to our friends and loved ones of how we loved it and they should follow suit and buy themselves one too!
The next year we pulled the tree out of the basement, put the three sections together, plugged in the cord and...
"hmm, something's wrong, the bottom section isn't lighting up," my wife said.
"Ah, it's probably just a loose connection," I answered. I wiggled and jiggled with the wires and sure enough after a couple of minutes the lights came on.
"See, nothing to worry about," I declared. All seemed well until the next day when the bottom row wouldn't light up again. We ended up wrapping a strand of lights around the bottom with plans to "fix it" next year.
The next year we again pulled the Martha Stewart tree out of the basement, put it together, plugged it in and voila, the bottom and top were not lighting up. I could feel my blood pressure starting to rise. I wiggled, jiggled, flipped, turned, and punched at the tree trying to get it to light up.
"Dadgum this tree!" I yelled.
"It will be okay," my wife said, "we'll just buy some strands of lights and wrap them around it."
"Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having a pre-lit tree," I asked?
"Well, if it's not going to work then we have to do something," my wife answered. Reluctantly, I agreed and we bought lights and added to it. At least the middle was still working and every now and then the top section would come on.
Now, we come to this year. Again, we pulled the tree out of the basement, put it together, plugged it in, and... not a single light came on. I checked the power outlet, the power strip, tested the fuses, replaced bulbs, wiggled every wire and light on the tree but never could get a single light to come on. We let the tree stand in the corner for 2-weeks. Finally tonight we made a family decision; we will just remove all of the lights and wiring from the tree and buy new strands and wrap the tree the way we used to. So, for the past 3-hours my wife and I have been patiently removing all of the little plastic clips and unwrapping the strands of wire. It is a very tedious job but by the Grace of God we're not going to let Martha Stewart ruin our Christmas!
Just a word of advice... if you think you just HAVE to have a pre-lit Christmas tree... think again. It's not worth it. Save yourself a lot of time, money, work, and heartache and either buy a real tree or just a plain old-fashioned artificial one.
UPDATE: Looks like we aren't the only ones with pre-lit tree woes. I stumbled upon a
great post on Mamaw Bee's Place.
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