To hate this about Christmas tree lights?

[GardenAnarchist]

Picture the scene: You've spent ages trimming your Christmas tree with strings of fairy lights, sparkly baubles, shiny tinsel. Gorgeous! Then you switch on the plug socket... and your tree turns into a flashing strobe beacon visible from space. After rescuing any epileptic family members in the vicinity, you grope around the light plug for the control button and it takes 8 (eight) presses through a series of barely distinguishable but eye-watering flickery-flashy-blinky settings, to achieve the steady state of... ON.

Just why??

Why isn't ON the first default setting?
And while we're on that, why is there a setting of "pretend I'm ON, then just as the user withdraws their finger from the button, fade everything to black"?

I have multiple sets of tree lights bought over the last 10 years and they all do this. Some need 8 presses, some 7, some 9 😫 If I put my tree lights on a timer to save electricity, I come downstairs in the morning to a scene like a Star Wars laser battle and have to crawl on the floor to press all the buttons the requisite number of times.

YABU - Only a boring stick in the mud wants a steady glow on the tree. Clearly, at least 8 times more consumers prefer all the other blinky-flashy settings giving the electric storm-cum-Laserquest-kids-birthday-party vibe!

YANBU - Surely there must be a market for tree lights that just have OFF and ON? And maybe a third setting of gentle twinkling?

On/twinkly/off = what I have (not sold as Christmas tree lights, and I have them in my living room all year round, they just look quite nice, and I don't really do Christmas).
Got them from Lidl, I think, a few years ago.

This! I hate this. I know the exact one you mean too, where it starts gently then goes off in to rave mode. My lights have so many settings but not one is a steady gentle flickering which would be my preference, so I have to go for the still setting.

I totally agree with you @GardenAnarchist
I absolutely hate the mad flashing lights.
iI would love if you could buy battery lights that just softly twinkle.
Any inventor out there ?
I think you’d make a fortune.
And I know the ones you write of, with the gentle flicker that lull you into a false sense of security that you’ve got the right setting before going nuts or the awful fade to black setting @Playdy

That's it, I've been inspired to shop for static tree lights! It's too late for us this year, but the infuriating flashy buggers will be consigned to WEEE waste when the tree comes down and new simple ON/OFF lights will be bought in the January sale.

Hard agree. Our outside lights would be on a timer but for the fact that they will come on to create an outdoor rave. So I have to go into the garage, pick my way through the junk and car to get to the plug. Only problem then is that unless I open the garage door I can’t see what setting they are on when I try and change it. I’m very tempted to throw them out and replace them too.

You have captured the infuriating experience of Xmas lights so well! I was reading along and nodding my head - so pleased to know that there are fellow Xmas light sufferers out there 😁

I put tape on ours top,middle,bottom on ours so I know which ones I've set to normal instead of picking up the wrong box
We have 3 sets and it's a pita.

I’m using battery ones on the tree this year that I didn’t need elsewhere and the best thing about them is the remote!! You just select what option you want but need to have remembered what number that is.

Try and get remote ones next time you replace.

Totally agree . Tree ones are 8 presses mantelpiece ones are 6 so I keep getting muddled up. Im all for steady at 1 . We should form a protest group .

YANBU OP, I hate the flashing lights as well.
I also hate how bright modern Christmas lights are, I want the old fashioned fairy lights with a soft, warm glow. Not the bright, glaring lights available nowadays.

Does anyone know of a brand that produce a 2 option fairy light product - steady on or softly twinkling ?

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!

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 🤔

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.

I don't know about the loop thing, you're the second poster to mention this. It must be a new thing!

You could try putting the lights on "up and down" rather than "round and round" and it may be easier with the loop.

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

Light Aware does talk about Christmas lights.

lightaware.org

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.

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'?

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’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.

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.

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!

Oh me ,you definitely have my sympathies👍

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.