How to Fix a Broken Light

Every time a light goes out or breaks on my tree (LED lights just look weird to my dad and I so we haven't made the switch) I keep waiting for a friendly Grinch Santa to come by and take it to fix it at the North Pole, like that nice one did for Cindy Lou Who in that movie. ;)

However the living room has remained totally Grinchless for years, so I had to learn how to fix the bulb myself. Now, the obvious lazy man fix is to move the disobedient bulb to the back of the tree or just replace it with a spare bulb. But what do you do when you want to replace it and you don't have any spare bulbs that have the same base? Throw out the whole string of lights and scream in agony?

Nope. I have a fix!

I run into this problem often with the little angels on our family tree.

Each angel is holding a tiny light bulb that is supposed to light, but this year one of them wouldn't turn on (well, 2 didn't, but one has been broken for years). However these angel lights have a specific white base that does not match the ones on the strands of lights, so I can't just switch it out.

Here is what you do:

1. Take the old bulb and a new one and bend the copper wires that you see on the bottom until they are straight. Be gentle because they break easily!

2. Remove each "bulb" from the base and switch them to the other base (well, technically you can just throw out the other base and bulb, but if you were swapping two colours this would work)

3. Make sure the two wires come out through the two small holes on the bottom. This can be tricky as the holes are small. Just make sure your wires are straight and keep trying.

4. Once in, bend the wires so they run up the side of the new base.

5. Install in the strand and enjoy!