Good observation! I don't even spend more that 30 minutes on them if they are tangled up! To the trash with thee! I know that doesn't sound very environmentaly friendly, but hey, $5.99 (or less after the holidays!)

lol ~ I don't even keep too many of the ornaments or anything ~ for about $25 a year, I head over to the dollar store and do a whole new color scheme every year. And then I chuck it. I don't even package it up for good will. I just chuck it. What a horrid American I am! But I tell yah what, I am a more happy, less stressful AMerican. ;-D

I'm almost positive my parents do. I love them but they can be such packrats.

Girl, I have a ziplock full of those suckers, and when my hubby spotted a dead bulb this year, I got all excited and pulled out my "collection". Damn if none of those bulbs would work! Why do I torture myself so???

I'm a horrible packrat, but yeah when they're that cheap it doesn't even pay to store them (the string) from one year to the next.

I mean, I'll happily pay $20 for somebody to cook me a steak, why not spend the same $20 on a few strands of lights that'll be up for a month?

(says the guy that hasn't put up christmas lights yet)

Ummm.. Yeah, I actually do.

I keep all the spares in a cigar box so I can find them when needed.

Unlike poor Judy who thought she could actually match up the right socket set, when a bulb burns out or breaks, I simply take one of my spare bulbs out of it's socket, and replace the bulb part only in the burned out one. Fits right back into the set, and no sorting necessary.

Those $5.99 ones? No. Now those $1.99 string of lights I scored at the SuperT last weekend? Yeah. We saved those!

I can never seem to get the damn things out of the tiny little sockets. I must suffer from 'fat finger syndrome', heheehe

I admit - I do save them. I don't know why though, because I rarely use them. I can't throw away my lights, either. If they aren't working, I set them aside thinking I'll work on them some other time. (Yeah, right!)

I hoard those suckers like it's the Apocalypse! But I have never, EVER used them and, truthfully, I never would. Unless I actually stepped on a bulb and knew exactly which one was broken, I'd never take the time to go through them all to figure out which one needed replacing. My time is worth way more than $5.99!

yeah but they usually get broken anyway.

I think everyone should mail them to Martha. I wonder what she would do with them.

LOL...good point. Although I did feel victorious when I was able to replace a few burnt out bulbs this year... Made me feel good about not only keeping those dang bulbs.. but also being able to FIND them again ;)

I may be mistaken, but one of the dozen or so labels attached near the plug must say something about disposal under penalty of in-laws (or sumpin' like that).

Well, my husband does.

Hey Ma! (Hey Ya by Outkast now stuck in my head for a long while)...long time no comment. We didn't put up one, no I take it back...we put up 2 wreaths on the front doors this year, and that's it! Not one light, not one "ornery-ment" as my mom calls them. Nada, Nothing, Zilch. I did send a Christmas card to the Melbourne, FL branch of the ACLU. And, every time I go to Whole Foods, I always be sure to say Merry Christmas to the tattoo'd and pierced folk who find it necessary to say "Happy Holidays." Man that gets on my nerves...can you tell?

Merry Christmas All!

Those usually get stepped on while putting up the lights in the middle of cursing so I'd guess no.

Ummm.. yeah, I do actually. And I guess I will just admit here and now. 17 1/2 years of marriage, 3 dating means 20 years together. This would explain the 58 little bags of replacement bulbs in our junk drawer, Christmas boxes and tool boxes right? LOL.

I never save them and then curse myself when I need them!

I had to come crawling back here to say that yes, I put up Christmas lights tonite (don't have any holiday lights, sorry. These are bona-fide Christmas lights, just like the ones that Joseph put up in the manger after much nagging from a very-pregnant and more-than-slightly-hormonal Mary, but I digress).

It's only the 19th. And when a neighbor asked why I was on my roof at 8:00 at night, I said I was trying to beat the heat. No followup questions.

Oh, and I thought of y'all as I threw away a perfectly good string of lights, well, except that they wouldn't light up at all and half the bulbs were broken and I have six more strands but only need three and I'm certain I paid $3.99 for them five years ago.

Too much trouble to save.

We sure do seem to keep buying them every year, and I never question where the others went. Hmmmm.

I said something interesting tonight, and now I'm waiting to see if I put off my entire church congregation--or however many of them might read my site. eep.

Um, yeah, sure. They're right over....well they were. Someone must have moved them. Yeah that's it.

Spares? Your string has spares?

-G

My frugal dh will strip a whole strand "just in case" one off a good strand goes out. THAT is insane but whatever it's his time not mine.

save? yes. use? no.

I consider myself lucky if I can find the string of lights the next year. Much less the extras! It's horribly American but I'd rather just go buy new ones than try to find, troubleshoot and fix a $5 string of lights *chuckle*

I always organize these things (throw them in a random Christmas decorations box) but then forget where they are stashed by the next year.

When a string goes dark I cannibalize it. The pack of spare bulbs go in the trash. I have more strings of lights that don't work than do.

You know, now that you mention it... I have this box of the spare bulbs that they package with the strings of lights. Its brimming full. It also contains the blinker light bulb that makes me dizzy when put into the string. Anyway, I have the box but never have even tried to replace a bulb to get the string working again. I think you have just inspired me to throw out the box next year with all those broken strings!

We always have to pay more that $5.99 on our lights over here in Europe.. so yes. Where do I put them and can I ever find them when I need them *sigh* Nope!

I've heard that there are people who secretly bury them in the trash in the dead of night whenever they stop lighting, rather than test the strand to find the one bulb that 'done it.'

It's nobody we know, really.

But when you can buy them after Christmas for a buck. . . .

i save them, but never use them. when i die they'll find boxes in my bedroom closet of sweet-n-low packets and spare christmas bulbs.

for some reason i always thought the lights were expensive... then when i got out on my own and realized i could get a strand of 100 for $3.99 - eh, why hunt down the duds when you can buy new? this year, i even through out one of those spiral trees because a bulb was out.

I have one string of non-working colored lights that I use for spare bulbs. and as of last night, I apparently have one string of only-half-working clear bulbs that will be handy for spares once I remove it from the garland on the stair bannister. Probably sometime around Epiphany.

My husband fumes that none of the bulbs work in any other strands--even the ones that are the same, only bought a year later. He is not very happy about it. Bah humbug.

What spare bulbs?

UM... There is a small bag right aside of me with red lights in it and the ones on my tree are red so... I guess I do save them.

I don't save them. My next tree is going to have the lights on it already. My family knows that when mom starts kicking the tree box across the room because the lights don't work, it's time to go play outside, or at the neighbors, or in another city.

Yep, I save them in the box they came in and the strings get put back in their boxes after christmas. I even BOUGHT spares for one big string and I had to use two of them this christmas! (I never knew I was anal) It was such a PITA to find the broken bulb.

But I have thrown away a non working string that only lit up once and then never again because at 0,99 it would have cost more on gas to return it.

I was so excited to find some this tear that have bulbs that work independently of each other. One burns out and the rest stay lit. Amazing!! We put a man on the moon decades ago and we just figured out how to make Christmas lights work!