by Kellee Weinhold

Created on: December 07, 2008

If you are like the majority of people in charge of the decorating for Christmas at home, the first time you think about Christmas lights is when you're detangling them from the box you shoved them in the year before. And while it may not be long before you are stringing them on your house or tree, chances are that once it comes time for the big "light up," something won't. Light up, that is.

Unfortunately, your solution is likely to include rushing out the door to the nearest discount store, grabbing the closest, cheapest box at hand and racing home to finish the job. All to be repeated the following year.

There are a few simple steps you can take to avoid this yearly ritual and in the process, save money and reduce the amount of plastic, glass and wire dumped into landfills. And if this Christmas marks your first foray into the Christmas light scene, follow these steps and you'll be set for years to come.

First of all, BEFORE you go to the store, decide what you need. Are you replacing a small strand of tree lights? An entire front porch worth of exterior lights? Do you want a solid color, multi-colors or plain white? Do you plan to go the classic route? With exterior lights, classic is long and tapered, traditionally labeled C7 and C9, the latter being bigger. But be advised, both of them suck power. To avoid quite such a spike in your power bill, choose mini-lights. Like their bigger cousins, mini-lights also taper, but they use considerably less power (between 10 and 30 percent depending on the lights). Perhaps teeny tiny micro lights are your style? Or maybe you want to go the entirely modern route with LED lights.

Whatever you decide, measure and write it down. Don't fall prey to the myth that you will remember when you get there. There is a seemingly endless array of lights to be had and in the stress of the moment, without planning, mistakes will be made, return trips required.

Once you get to the store and consider the options, it is important to pay close attention to two critical features: replacement and heat. 1) Replacement: When a bulb on the string goes bad - which the useless string you left at home should serve as evidence that they will - does the whole string go dark or just the bulb? If it doesn't say that only the bulb goes dark, don't buy it. You'll be right back here next year. 2) Heat: Does the box clearly state that the bulbs are low heat? If not, don't buy them, especially if you plan to use them on your tree. It doesn't take much to accept that heat next to dry needles is a bad idea.

And finally, once you get home with your new boxes of lights and are impatiently tearing the little plastic packages of spare lights and fuses off of the strand, stop yourself. They are included for a reason. Individual bad lights, which you can clearly see if you have purchased the proper strings, can be replaced. Fuses, which are guaranteed to blow if you exceed the recommended strand limit, can be replaced. So designate a place to keep the spares, and keep them. Next year, if necessary, you can spend a couple minutes replacing bulbs instead of more time and money buying more lights.

But for now, enjoy your lights until it's time to take them down for another year. Of course, at that point you might want to consider storing them carefully. A little planning and you might not have a dark moment in your Christmas sparkle.

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