Christmas fairy lights: Filament or LED?

[Lucien Nunes]

I'm disappointed to see how many people these days are turning their backs on the ancient tradition of connecting many low voltage filament lamps in series to mark the occasion of Jesus' birth.

The mains-voltage series string of lamps brings with it a noble symbolism that goes all the way back to biblical times. The long path of the current through all the lamps represents the journey that Mary and Joseph had to make to register in Bethlehem. The frustration of searching for an open-circuit lamp represents the hardship they faced when they were unable to find a room at the inn, while the self-bypassing lamps represent the partial work-around of putting up in the stable. The white-tipped fuse lamp at the end represents the Star of Bethlehem that guided the wise men, etc. etc.

So, who here is sticking with the official Christmas story by draping strings of series-connected filament lamps around a spuce tree? Who has opted for the heretical LED alternative?

 

[ackbarthestar]

We've been lunimentally heretical, (enlightened) as our outdoor lights are on for 7 hours and are accessible by the public, if so desired. Every year we have to hunt around for new replacement ELV filament lamps and each year it gets more difficult to source them, so ......

 

[Spoon]

Having never thought of Christmas tree lights in this manner I have just gone for LED lights as they were the least hassle and cheapest.

 

[pc1966]

We used to have some outdoor filament lamp sets we bought from Woolworth to light up our outdoor kit for the general betterment of the locals, decent brightness as each was something like a 3W lamp. It was noticed by the pilots of Leuchars we were told!

Alas, though outdoor rated they failed after a dozen or so years and we could only get LED options and they are not really bright enough to be seen from around 100m away (down 45m or so and over to the nearby roads).

Equipment now moved out of city, and years since the fly boys were stationed there anyway.

 

[Julie.]

Call me a heretic, modern(ish) led in short strings both indoor and out.

(To be even more heretical, I would actually prefer RGB 2811 leds driven by a Falcon F16V4 controller, managed via xlights)

But a bit OTT

 

[Julie.]

 

[littlespark]

We had a couple of sets on our first plastic tree when we got married in ‘98. Probably from woolies as well.
2 sets of I think around 20 lamps???

1 has completely given up, the other still works, but we just don’t use it for fear of breaking.

We still have the tree, and the original baubles from 23 years ago… plus a few more that the kids have made in school or whatever. This being the “traditional” tree in a red, green and gold colour scheme, with warm white lights.

The other tree we inherited from a family friend as they were downsizing, and we were upsizing. Cool white, in a silver and blue scheme.

What I can’t stand is the very flashy strings of lights. Slow fade, static or a nice twinkle effect. Flashing back and forth like a strobe light does not suggest Christmas to me, only student union flashbacks…

 

[nicebutdim]

The other half buys cheap LED lights and is lucky if they last a couple of years.

While I didn't mind maintaining the old lights, they were invariably presented for repair at the worst times possible and with an expectation that they would be fixed there and then.

 

[marconi]

'Christmas lights were more exciting in the 1970s' - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-berkshire-55230664

Nice collection. Didn’t woolworth once sell the interesting replacement 12v lamps which had shape, colour and artwork ?

Ps: Led powered by a modern safe plug in adapter. The older types of Xmas lights fed directly off the mains were potential killers