found a very nice prelit tree at a yard sale!

[steph535]

I needed to replace our old main Christmas tree so I went yard/garage saleing yesterday and found a GE 7.5 ft prelit Christmas tree for only $40! This is a full tree with 850 clear lights and 1,970 branch tips. It has clear lights and a foot pedal to turn them on and off.

Last night, my teenaged daughter and son asked me to go to bed before them, so they could work on a surprise for me. When I got up this morning, I found they had put up the new tree!! It was a wonderful surprise! I had wanted to see what it looked like put up. They plugged in some of the lights and those work, but I still need to arrange the branches and plug in the rest of the lights. I usually don't put my trees up until at least Thanksgiving evening, so I may not be decorating the tree until then. I'm so happy I won't have to be putting on all those lights this year!!!!! I may add some, like a string down around the trunk and maybe some multi-colored, because I like a LOT of lights. I just wanted to share this with you, my wonderful Christmas friends. :dance:

[ornamentmaven]

Sounds like a great bargain - and what great kids! I have a pre-lit tree and they are much easier! My tree does now have one strand of lights that don't work and I don't have the patience to try to fix it so I just weave in another strand!

[steph535]

Sounds like a great bargain - and what great kids! I have a pre-lit tree and they are much easier! My tree does now have one strand of lights that don't work and I don't have the patience to try to fix it so I just weave in another strand!

Thank you, OM. I will do the same when a string goes out. I hear that lights on a prelit last only about 3 years. I don't really understand that, since lots of times, strings that you buy from the store and put on a tree with no lights, last a lot longer than that.

[ornamentmaven]

Unfortunately true - and one of the reasons we buy artificial trees is to save money!!!!

[Papa_Christmas]

I think it depends on the quality of pre-lit tree you get. I have three GE Fresh-cut trees made by a company called Santa’s Best pre-lit with GE lights the oldest is six years old and still doing fine.

[MinnesotaMike]

We have 2 artificial trees. One was very nice, and expensive. The other is smaller, and cheaper. Both are doing fine after several years, although the cheaper one IS starting to show it's age a bit. The cats have been hard on it.

[steph535]

I think it depends on the quality of pre-lit tree you get. I have three GE Fresh-cut trees made by a company called Santa’s Best pre-lit with GE lights the oldest is six years old and still doing fine.

Papa, this tree is also a GE, but does not say it is "Fresh Cut." The person I bought it from said they bought it new 3 years ago, but only used it the first year because most years they travel out of state for Christmas. Yesterday, I searched for it many times on google, to maybe get some more information about it and to read some reviews. I managed to find only two sites, one of which was my own post on this forum, and the other was someone in TX was selling one on craigslist for $100. There seems to be no information about this particular model anywhere. The only similar results I am getting is a GE 7t 'fresh cut' grand spruce with about 1500 tips and about 600 lights. Mine says "decorators' choice" on the box.

[ornamentmaven]

Steph it sounds like you have a good tree! Mine, I'll admit was a cheapo!

[steph535]

I talked to a rep from Santa's Best and she was so nice, knowledgeable and helpful. She showed me where to find the model number and where to find out when the tree was manufactured by reading a number on a plug. Turns out, my tree was made in 2003 and she said it's an older tree that isn't made anymore. She said you can't get any replacement parts for it. But, it's still a very nice tree, so I will use it as long as I can.

[Donna-50]

Sounds like you got a good deal. I have a GE fresh cut frasier that I bought they year before last after Christmas. So far so good. I have a smaller tree that I use in the living room that I purchased from Walmart about 5 years ago and the lights are all still working. Granted I don't light that one as much as the family room tree but it does get lit alot. Good luck with your new tree.

[steph535]

[QUOTE=Donna-50;39901]Sounds like you got a good deal. I have a GE fresh cut frasier that I bought they year before last after Christmas. So far so good. I have a smaller tree that I use in the living room that I purchased from Walmart about 5 years ago and the lights are all still working. Granted I don't light that one as much as the family room tree but it does get lit alot. Good luck with your new tree.[/QUOTE Thanks, Donna.

As it turns out, the branches are not hinged, as I had first thought. It is sort of a combination of the old and new. Each branch can be put on and taken off the trunk individually, in the same way as an older tree, but you can keep them on the tree and they just fold up along the trunk for storage.

Also, I discovered that when my kids kindly put it up as a surprise, my son was trying to figure out the lights and he ended up unplugging some, so it will be a real challenge to figure it all out. I told him next time if he is not sure about it, just leave it alone.

[Elf_Erv]

sounds like a nice tree and a great price :tree1:

[SilverBells]

I hope you'll have the most beautiful tree ever :christmastree: this Christmas :christmastree::home:

[steph535]

thanks, everyone, for the kind words