Glad Jul! This set of Christmas lights purchased last year at Target remind me of an old imported Italian light set my family had when I was a child. Those Italian lights had a set of three concentric colored plastic "crowns" that reflected and transmitted the colored light from the bulb in a magical fashion. I used to stare into the tree and unfocus my eyes, watching the lights' myriad colors coruscate across the tinsel and ornaments like a kaleidoscope.

We used that set of lights for over ten years, until several bulbs burned out and the electric current running through the remaining ones increased to the point it overheated the others, causing some of plastic "crowns" to melt over the bulbs. Not the safest design, but they were the most beautiful Christmas lights I've ever seen. I'm pretty certain that 1970 set was not UL Listed (ha!) but they were still a sight safer than the actual wax Christmas tree candles my parents and grandparents used to have on their (natural) trees when they were kids.

Both of them have hair-raising stories of trees that caught fire and threatened to burn down the family home, if not for a quick-thinking relative that doused the burning branches with water or tossed the flaming tree out the door into the snow. Those were the good old days...

Labels: humor, safety, xmas

---