Christmas Novelty Decorations or Lights

[Snowflake]

Has anyone else noticed that they don't seem to be making a lot of the Novelty Christmas lights anymore? Or I don't see a lot of Animated or whimsical items either. Maybe because I don't live in the city anymore.

Several years ago, I got a singing santa, Frosty the snowman etc and these were nicely made not cheap made. Most came from Walmart or similiar stores.

Even some of the Mr. Christmas items aren't as neat as they used to be.

I do look at a lot of online website too.

[Paul_C_69]

I saw a fair amount of novelty lights at Wal-mart this year but I have a prelit tree so I can't use them. I did get a nice Mr. Christmas item this year, it's a tall clock with chimes inside that play 15 different Christmas songs but also 15 traditional non Christmas songs as well. It sounds amazing! The problem is I've had 2 of them & the clock was bad on both. And I'm torn now since they don't have any left I have to decide whether or not to keep it with a non working clock. The chimes still work though & they sound really nice, I'd hate to not be able to have one. I wish they didn't cut corners on these things using such cheap parts!!!!!!!

[mc-elf]

is it worth taking it to someone who works on clocks?

[Snowflake]

Paul, I know what you mean. They make these cute things and then they don't work. Was it made in China. Everything is made there almost and it is terrible. I get so aggrivated with some of my older animated Telco Santa that doesn't work half the time. Now a good business would be to know how to repair our Christmas stuff. But I am not mechanically inclined.
We pay so much for it too.

[Paul_C_69]

is it worth taking it to someone who works on clocks?

I wonder if anyone even does that anymore, what with our "if it's broke, throw it out" mentality. I must take a look in the Yellow pages & see if there is a clock fixer out there. It's definitely very nice though, the chimes would sound off once every hour when it was working.

[Snowflake]

Paul, You said:

I saw a fair amount of novelty lights at Wal-mart this year but I have a prelit tree so I can't use them.


I got a prelit tree this year, but I used my novelty lights in addition to the prelit lites on the tree. I didn't have any problems, but I did weave one of the cords with extra plugs near the pole part of the tree. I didn't want to plug in my novelty's into the prelit plugs etc. My novelties are the red candle cluster lights and the 'red bird' lights.

Hopefully, that didn't hurt anything. I ran them to separate power strips also.

[Snowflake]

I think I was the last one to post last year. Last year my novelty redbird lights worked. They are like new condition. This year I got them out of box, plugged them in at my wall socket to make sure they worked, before putting on tree. When I went to plug them into the tree, they would not light. That happened with each set. I had a dedicated extension cord and power strip for them. I can't figure out what is wrong. It sounds like a blown fuse. I am only working with one of the sets to get it going. I checked all the lights, no black ones. Fuses look good, but I changed them anyway. Wiring is excellent.
Does anyone have any ideas? :c15:

[lightitup]

I think I was the last one to post last year. Last year my novelty redbird lights worked. They are like new condition. This year I got them out of box, plugged them in at my wall socket to make sure they worked, before putting on tree. When I went to plug them into the tree, they would not light. That happened with each set. I had a dedicated extension cord and power strip for them. I can't figure out what is wrong. It sounds like a blown fuse. I am only working with one of the sets to get it going. I checked all the lights, no black ones. Fuses look good, but I changed them anyway. Wiring is excellent.
Does anyone have any ideas? :c15:
I have had brand new fuses be bad and it drives you nuts. Check to make sure none of the lights are loose, if you have a light pro use it on the wire going down till you don't get a blinking light on the light pro. If you don't have a light pro tester go and buy one. It will save you many hours. You can check each bulb individually and when you do check the connections inside the socket to make sure none are burned out. If none of this works let me know.

[Snowflake]

yes, I got my pro out and I got all but one set fixed. Most times the mini bulbs have a little black in them when they are bad, well I Had to test each bulb, and found I had two or 3 bulbs in each set bad, but not black. then the last set, I think the new fuses I put in are bad. but I don't need that set now. I love the novelty lights, but they can drive you nuts.

thanks for the tips tho.:eek: