Christmas Lights

I am a Christmas fanatic. Each year as the holidays approach I tell myself that this year I will check through all of my Christmas storage prior to making any new purchases. But then I will be out shopping and will see a pre-season sale and cannot pass up the bargain. It seems that each year the Christmas merchandise hits the shelves earlier. Last year on Labor Day weekend when I was searching through the school supply aisle I noticed that the Christmas lights were displayed in the next aisle. It seems that the same day that the Halloween Candy goes on clearance is the same day that the Christmas candy goes on the shelves.

Last year I did not pass up the pre-season Christmas lights. They were a very good deal and I could not remember if the Christmas lights from the year before worked or not. Of course when I did take decorations out of storage I found that I had purchased new Christmas lights at a clearance sale at the end of the previous season. My husband often reminds me that I need to check what I have prior to buying more because we are running out of storage space. Last year I was glad that I had the extra Christmas lights because the old strand was burned out. We did not even try to locate why the strand did not light we simply used all the new ones. I told my husband that we should buy new lights each year and donate the old ones to the school. Each year the school is looking for lights to use at dances, proms and plays. By donating the lights they will go to a good cause and we do not have to store them and then try to untangle them each year. It is so much easier to decorate with new lights because they are not tangled and they all light.

The Christmas lights that we use outdoors are more expensive so we put in more effort in packing them so that they do not tangle. This is not always easy because the weather is usually bitterly cold when we put the outdoor lights away. My husband cannot tolerate having the lights stay on the house once the holiday season is over. He will never be one of the home owners that leave the holiday lights on the house year round. He enjoys looking at light displays and he enjoys decorating our home and yard, but after News Years Day he insists that the decorations go back into storage.

I am going to try to resists the sales this year until I go through the storage area. I know that we did donate the Christmas lights that we used last year, but I do not remember if I bought more at the end of the season sales.