To want TWINKLING lights not BLINKING lights

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After falling for yet another completely misleading product description, I am now in possession of my fifth string of awful blinking and flashing fairy lights!

I want the type I used to see everywhere at Christmastime in the 1990s, where the bulbs would very slowly wink on and off in completely random order, almost like fireflies.

Does anyone else remember these or am I going mad? And if the former, can you tell me where to purchase these, please?

Don't you have a small button on your lights to change the pattern? I can cycle through 8 different types of on off patterns from steady on, to blinking, to randon, to fade etc etc

You want lights that have a 'slow fade' option.

Yes, I have the ones with eight patterns. On "slow fade" settings all the lights, or half of them, fade on and off in unison. There's no winking and no randomness about it.

I bought some Christmas lights a while back that have several 'blink' options. Most of them give me a migraine or scare the dog (and one is like the SOS signal), but one has most of the lights on, then random ones go out and come on again. Maybe you can find some in a shop where you can try some out?

My husband bought exactly the lights you are describing this weekend. I’ll see if we kept the box

Yes! I’ve been looking for those for years.

Totally agree! We used to have lovely twinkling tree lights, bought many years ago from John Lewis but I've never found a good replacement.

Yes - they are called Firefly lights and made by a company called Festive.
600 are £39 on Amazon although ours came from a local garden centre.

@GrannyBags Hoping you kept the box! Any chance you post a quick video of the lights in action?

I would love to know where they are too. All lights I’ve bought in the last few years that say they twinkle actually don’t, they flash in an organised sequence and I hate them.

@GrannyBags, thanks—I've found a video on YouTube. They are very nice and much better than most, but not the same effect I was thinking of. Here's the link in case anyone else is interested.

With these ones the lights go on and off quite quickly, rather than having a slow 'winking' effect.

I thought that was called "slo glow" where half fade on and half fade off - that's my favourite too.

Alternatively, we sometimes put two sets of lights on - one red one gold and put both on slo fade so there always at least half on at any one time.

Yes I agree they are a lot nicer than most, but they don’t twinkle in the same, slow way that I’m looking for. I remember it distinctly, it’s so frustrating to not be able to find it.

With the "slo glo" the lights go on (half) and off (the other half) in unison, rather than randomly.

Festive Lights have a website and also sell on Ebay if it is any help.

I miss twinkling ones too. Everywhere round these parts they are flashing and it's quite hard on the eye, especially the blue ones. Every corner I turn I think there has either been an accident or a riot.

OH is epileptic and trying to find non-flashing lights is a nightmare. We have lights with multiple settings and he's not allowed into the room until I've gone through the rigmarole of pressing the button until the static is enabled. Sometimes the button needs to be pressed 6 times before it's finally safe.

Unfortunately I've found that many manufacturers advertise their lights as "twinkling" but after purchase, I discover their definition of the word is quite different to mine.

If you live anywhere near South Wales the Festive warehouse is here. It's a nice hour out looking at Christmas decorations!!

I know exactly what you mean. I shamefully buy fairy lights whenever I can and I reckon your best bet is probably the terribly named Lights 4 Fun.

I've found that having two sets of lights, both flashing out of synch, gives a twinkly effect

We got ones from bhs in the early nineties, true twinkling ones, they were beautiful!
There are no replacements... i’ve tried them all! I went for static ones eventually as all the rest were never the same!

I bought twinkling lights last week from Next- £20 for 300. There are about 8 settings and one of them is pretty and twinkly. The other settings are awful so I have it set to twinkly all the time.

Mandela effect imo

True randomisation, like fireflies, is very hard

Yes I know what you mean. I bought firefly lights but they shimmer. I saw what I wanted at a restaurant but they couldn't remember where they came from. The search continues.