It’s Black Friday, and my wife and I ventured out to stand in line at a ridiculously early time of the morning. There were tons of people out just like us, so there was a certain comradery out there, which was kind of cool. We were able to pick up a few items that was on our shopping list. One thing on our list was a pre lit Christmas tree, which we did not get. We saw one, but it wasn’t of great quality. Now I don’t mind getting a bargain, but not a cheap looking Christmas tree.

Many years ago we purchased a pre lit Christmas tree from a local seasonal retail store. It wasn’t cheap as if I remember right, it was in the $200+ range. We got it home, and I put it together and it worked flawlessly. Took it down after and stored it away for next year. Well next year came around and I unpacked it, put it together and plugged it in. Well, needless to say, one of the strands of lights was out. No problem, cause I troubleshooted it and found that I hadn’t plugged the strand that wasn’t working in. Cool fixed..

Same thing the following year.. unpacked, put together and plugged in. 2 strands were out… I did all the normal troubleshooting checks, and this time the strands were plugged in right. I found out that on those 2 strands, two of the light bulbs had bad connections.. I had to take a spare bulb and one by one unplug and plug in the spare. It took 2 1/2 hours to figure and fix.. Oh boy…

The following year, 3 strands were out when I plugged this pre lit Christmas tree in. Oh bother…I thought to myself, I was never going to look for the cheapest pre lit Christmas tree I could find again, as I was just getting so tired each and every year after the first that it would take 2-3 hours of troubleshooting to get the tree fixed..

Do not skimp when purchasing a pre lit Christmas tree. I learned a valuable lesson and that the extra money spent on a quality tree is worth its weight in gold.