What to do with broken Christmas Tree Lights

Once the Christmas tree was up, the lights were strung, everything seemed to be perfectly in place, the ornaments glistened as they hung and the star shone bright completing the tree decorating process. Each night there was a delightful tickle within as the tree lights were turned on, oops, until you notice that there was a string of lights that had a mind of its own. With a little bit of wiggling, the section of lights decided to jump back on, leaving a sense of satisfaction once again. Well night after night when the lights were switched on, that same section of lights became harder to properly adjust until one day you realized, that’s it, they’re busted. christmas carols Without trying anymore, after all Christmas was only a day away, you decided that there was no more time to waste on trying to maneuver the lights so they would shine brightly as the others do.

While un-decorating the tree shortly after Christmas, placing the ornaments in boxes and the lights on special reels, you almost tossed out the broken tree lights but stopping in your tracks as you had been enlightened with an idea! Oh, what a wonderful idea, thoughts wandered through your head as to how you could recycle those broken tree lights. A string of lights has quite a bit of individual bulbs on them, definitely enough to even experiment with should you come up with an idea to use these broken lights. Don’t allow your uncreative side to discourage you from trying, instead bring on a new attitude; what’s the worst that could happen? You wind up throwing them in the garbage as originally planned.

However if the wheels were already turning in your head, you may have already thought of making a really cool ball of lights (yes, one’s that don’ work) that will look very nice. Start with a Styrofoam ball; begin to wrap the string of lights around the ball. While wrapping the wire around the ball, insert T pins into the ball to secure the wire strand in place. Continue wrapping the ball with the lights until you are happy with the amount of light bulbs that are protruding all around the ball. christmas songs Now cut the wire with wire cutters securing the end down with a T pin or two. Fill in around the bulbs, concealing the overlapping wires with a grout mixture or even cover the ball except for the bulbs with glue submerging the whole ball into a bowl of fake snow. Gently press the snow against the glued areas. If a thicker coat is desired, apply more glue over the snow and submerge again.

Depending whether or not these will be used for hanging ornaments or not, the substance in which you cover the wires with will be the decider. Grout will make the ball heavy. If this is done make a set of 3 and place in a decorative bowl on the table for a decoration. However, if something lighter in weight is used such as the fake snow you can easily hang these gorgeous homemade ornaments from your tree next year!