To hate this about Christmas tree lights?

I'm having nightmares with two of my neighbours and their bright white cold strobing lights outside, they manually turn them on and then the time run it's course every day but depending on what time they manually turn them on, the strobing can go on into the early hours.

I do! There was something about the gentle yet glowing colours of my 80's childhood! Even if the spiky plastic bits on the lights used to fall off abs hurt like hell to accidentally stand on 😁

Oh my cul de sac is ridiculous right now, 4:houses down here have the cold bright white lights all over the frontage of their houses and 2 have them on permanent fast strobe setting! The cul de sac doesn't look Christmassy, it looks like a bloody rave! My bedroom was like a disco until 11.30pm last night.

Same here with our 50 year old lights ! Tradition, not five minute gaudy fashions !

Could your techie dh design a gentle twinkling set of battery operated fairy lights ( preferably cluster lights rather than string lights ) @FadedRed ?
The only other option they could offer (NB as Option 1 )!
I think we’re on to something here.
Next stop Dragons Den 😂

Sounds perfect but I'm being dim, what's b&m?

Oh goodness I SO agree. And for All lights nit just the tree ones. Just stop - and have a simple on/off switch. If yoy want to be fancy, have a timer for those of us who stumble off to bed forgetting to turn them off! I HATE the effects with a passion and dislike having to scroll through them.

The lights should either be on or off. The mode where it tricks you its on and then fades out once you've sat down is the most annoying thing ever.

I miss the the pink and orange lights of christmas at my grandmas. I hate cool white or bright coloured ones

Bought b&m ones last week and.....they just go to ON straight away.V Impressed.

My tree lights are battery operated and have a timer, but they come on in the mode I set them when the tree went up (Number 7: constant on, no flashing), and three AA batteries will last until new year.
The outside lights are plugged in and DH (who is very tech-y) made a little electronic gadget to do the ‘pressing through the modes’ when the timer turns the lights on, maybe he ought to patent and market it and make our fortune…

Yes, this drives me mad. I like the gently changing settings but not the mad disco effect. Ironically DH (who actually has epilepsy) is unbothered, and DC love to change them to annoy me.

Oh me ,you definitely have my sympathies👍

OP, with that description, perhaps you should think of a new career in advertising! You were most descriptive!

Here I was, assuming that you would be cursing about how the entire set has managed to get tangled up (again) and how you would have to brave the hordes of B&M for a new set (to go with all of the new ones that you'd bought on an annual basis over the last 10 years).

I'd love to see how you would describe my trip into town last night. I kid you not, rural countryside, no streetlights, and BAM, it's like Blackpool Illuminations with strobe lights, then nothing for a mile or so to the next house!

No, I have one set of lights in a giant loop, too! Both ends go into the plug. It really is a pain, as the pp said.

I’ve often wondered why it’s not the default setting too.

I will never understand how some people choose to have the flashing lights setting on, it’s horrible.

I have resorted to keeping a list of which number setting is just "on" for my various sets of lights to avoid the ridiculous pressing faff every year. I agree, all the other settings are totally unnecessary and should be illegal!

I say exactly the same every year as I sit there pressing the button the requisite six times to get steady on lights. WHY? Whoever thought 'what this tree needs is to look like the local ambulance service is attending to me in the corner of my room'?

Oh yes, OP, I hate them! I want lights that are just ON! (unless you turn them off.) I loathe any sort of flashing lights, too.

Light Aware does talk about Christmas lights.

lightaware.org

Yes. Hate this. My lights also forget the setting so I have to reset 6 sets every time I switch them on. Drives me mad

I assume they don’t have ON as the first setting because people
might not realise there are other settings.

I was once round at a relative’s house where they always have their lights on demented setting and they were astonished when I asked them to change to ON as I was getting a headache.

This is why I prefer mains operated lights. Just the one setting.

Like most shite from China, it seems to prove the Chinese think everyone in the West is insane as well as gullible and willing to spend endless money on any old shite.... oh wait 🤔

its very hard to find static lights these days. I do not know why they have such ridiculous, awful settings.
yes, all the lights I have bought in the last few years are in loops. I assume you need a cowboy to throw a lasso type over the tree. I am a bit short to do that, and if I try, I end up damaging the tree!