apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i would do it, but my tree is prelit, the wires are all entangled in the branches and is just a web of wires...

otherwise, i would, i'm all about saving money

They are still a bit pricey, but another year or two (or three) and they will be cheap enough that the scales will be tipped toward them versus traditional mini-lights.

I started the switch to LED's this year. They were only $2 or $3 more per box and the LED's should burn out nearly as soon as regular bulbs.

In regard to your mom's white LED dilemma, I noticed yesterday that Philips makes a white LED set for Target in the "soft white" color which looks like a traditional white Christmas light. I'm not sure if it's available online, but they had them in the store.

I replaced most of my outdoor lights with LEDs this year, in a blue and white theme, so the starkness of the white LEDs worked perfectly for me.

In the house the lights take a lot less of a hammering than the outdoor lights, so all my old bulbs and tree lights worked perfectly, so we've continued to use those - but as they die, we'll be switching to LEDs.

The pre-lit tree is a little trickier, it's a much bigger expense than a $20 set of LEDs - that may be around a bit more.

I read somewhere that going LED will pay itself off after 3 or 4 seasons of regular usage, so it's worth it eventually.

I knew it was definitely switch time though when I stopped by my grandparents house in time to see them stringing the stubby LEDs on a tree they cut from the backyard.