Christmas Lights

I hope each and every one of you enjoyed a very blessed Thanksgiving day. My family spent the day in our usual tradition: on the phone wishing those family members who live in other parts of our world a blessed day, in the kitchen baking and cooking with the stove (and Mom!) going into overtime, eating entirely too much, and taking long afternoon naps!

I had hoped to put my Christmas lights on our trees and bushes outside, but that was not to be...my tired body and full tummy had other plans.

I want to start focusing on getting ready for Christmas. As you follow along in the next few weeks, it won't take you long to figure out that this is, indeed, my most favorite time of the year. I turn into a major toddler!! Everything is beautiful and exciting!!..and my wonderful hubby has learned to just indulge my childish fun for a month!

Speaking about those outdoor lights though, let me share what we're doing differently this year.

I, like most of you, have used the same Christmas lights over and over for years and years. I love Christmas lights and while I don't have as many as I'd like, I do have a lot! However, I see myself adding to our light surplus over the next few years in a different way.

About a month ago, we got a flyer from Home Depot in our paper. I noticed an ad for LED Christmas lights. My husband is over maintenance at our local hospital and I'd heard him mention before about how much energy these little lights saved.

A string of 50 lights were $6.99. I thought this was kind of high but hubby explained that while the initial cost may be a little expensive, the lights would pay for themselves this Christmas alone! The box said that these lights could last up to 20 years..so I'm thinking that's 19 years of free electricity for Christmas lights!

Our December electric bill tends to be higher than most months, but like I said, hubby indulges me... However, it's my job as his wife to be saving and as frugal as I can be, so when I saw this ad I started doing the math.

Yes, it was $6.99 for only 50 lights, but I can run 8 sets of these lights for the same wattage that I can run 1 set of the traditional Christmas lights (100 count)!

We have a big evergreen in our front yard that is perfect Christmas tree shape and it takes at least 150 lights to go around this tree ( that amount lights it up, but not like I'd like it). 150 traditional=3 sets of LED

I have 2 bushes in front of my porch that I light up at 100 lights for each bush. 200 traditional=4 sets of LED.

Right now that's all I light up outside, simply because of the electric bill factor. So...lighting up only what I normally do outside, I can string lights on everything I normally do cheaper with the LED lights.

I feel like I'm chasing myself here so this is what I'm trying to say:

Normally I use 350 traditional lights to light outside. Have you ever watched that little dial on your electric box when you plug those lights up?? That thing looks like it's trying to spin out into orbit! However, with the LED lights I can use the same 350 lights and that little dial doesn't even seem to be moving! Saving electricity which means savings in your wallet and saving our environment. Win-win situation to me.

At the time Home Depot was running their ad, they offered $3 off a set of LED lights for every traditional strand you brought in to trade. The limit was 5 per customer, so I bought 5 sets and dear hubby did as well. We bought 10 sets of LED's for a little more than $40. I use 350 lights outside, 150 on our Christmas tree, and so I have another 100 lights to use somewhere else!!

I'm anxious to see what our electric bill for December will be and I'll pass that along when the time comes.

Maybe you can only buy a couple of sets of LED's this year, but I wanted to make you aware so you can take advantage of sales that might come along before Christmas and especially after.

Blessings......