Old Christmas Lights

[disneychrista]

What do you do with old Christmas Lights that you no longer need/want?

 

[hmsTigger]

Donate them to a holiday program or nursing home

 

[Dan Murphy]

What do you do with old Christmas Lights that you no longer need/want?

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Our town takes them in for recycling.

 

[easyas123]

Honestly - I'd probably toss them.

 

[ronandannette]

If they still work, I'd donate them. Right now there are initiatives in our city to provide things for hundreds of Ukrainian refugee families that have been sponsored by local churches. They need literally everything.

 

[HopperFan]

Donate. There are people that thrift for older style holiday decorations (non-LED).

 

[luvnwdwgal]

Usually just trash them

 

[BlueStarryHat]

If they're still working, we find a place in our finished basement for them. It's Christmas all year round down there; we even have a tree up. If they're no longer good, we recycle them.

 

[disneychrista]

I have no clue if they work or not. I am donating a bunch of holiday Christmas decorations so if they work I will put them in with the other stuff. It is the non working ones that I am trying to find a place for. I know you are not "supposed to" put them in the trash but it doesn't seem like they make it easy to recycle them either.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Ours always stop working before they are unwanted.

 

[SteveH]

I just pulled the old bubs a couple years ago and put in new LED bulbs, I posted up on FB marketplace that I had a box of around 500 color incandescent bulbs and gave them to the 1st person that showed up.

 

[unrequited23]

Our local zoo collects non-working lights for recycling and it is supposed to benefit conservation, lions I think. It is a seasonal program.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

I got rid of mine through a community Buy Nothing group on Facebook.

 

[Imzadi]

I got rid of mine through a community Buy Nothing group on Facebook.

Yes, or the local Freecycle group. There are a few community "free" groups now. They go by various names, depending on your local community. All the Christmas items get snapped right up.

There is always someone who wants Christmas stuff and wants to be ready when it's finally time to decorate for Christmas. For some, the old style lights are very nostalgic.

 

[fly girl]

Ours always stop working before they are unwanted.

Same.

They go in the trash.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Same.

They go in the trash.

Funny thing about the timing of this thread... We use (warm white) Christmas lights year round in the back yard/patio area. I guess that is why we go through so many of them. I noticed last night we have a section that went out. Gotta find some time to take those down and pitch them, dig into the supply of new ones. I usually grab up strings of lights on the "after Christmas" sales to keep them on hand for situations like this.

 

[Mysterian]

If they're broken, give them to the Amish, they'll never know.

 

[tvguy]

When my mom passed away 10 years ago and I had an estate sale, the first items that sold were her Charlie Brown 1960's artificial Christmas tree, and all the lights, and all the exterior Christmas lights.
We have all our old incandescent Christmas lights boxed up as we bought LEDs years ago to replace them. The wiring is all still safe, and they work fine, if any of the LEDs die putting the old lights back into service would be cheaper than buying new LEDs......even factoring in the higher energy use.

 

[disneychrista]

I just had a thought. Maybe the electricians doing to rewire on my house know where to take them for recycling.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

The big old ceramic C-9s we threw away. The old midgets we gave to thrift charities. We're 100% LED now.