I’m lucky I’m married to an electrical engineer who handles all of our Christmas lighting needs. I’m quite happy to leave the lighting to him while I handle the Christmas cards.

Anyway, thanks for such an interesting post.

(Hope you have better luck in the future with your Christmas trees strapped/tied to the roof of your car!)

We have our own handwritten instructions inside the artificial Christmas tree box. “Tinsel first, then lights, three strings of lights, etc.” Putting together the tree is easy, but every year we had a big discussion about tinsel or lights first. Now we see the note when we open the box and can skip the discussion.

When I pack up all the Christmas decorations, I label what goes in which box — so I know how to fit the “jigsaw” puzzle back together after Christmas. When we’re moving we do this with things like computers, television/DVD connections etc. Then the map for reconnecting is in the box when we open it.

Making a light map might help for next year, but not sure how to help with your tree problem this year though? Maybe a color-coded label on each string, then make a written record of which combinations in which order you’ve tried? Failing that, maybe there’s a manufacturer’s website? Or you could google “tree manufacturer; how to connect lights” and see if there’s a cyber discussion out there — it’s likely others have had the same problem!

Good luck and Merry Christmas!