How long do you keep Christmas lights for?

[LordOfTheFlies]

You know what it's like. Every year you get the lights up, hopefully they've survived a year in the attic. And typically, some one them don't work.

But I've read that lights are amongst the main cause of house-fires (overloading sockets and twisted cables)

Do you replace them after X number of years or just when they give up the ghost?

Don't have lights on at night - switch off at socket and remove the plug. Also don't have them on when not in house. Actually we only have them on for a little while in the evenings. I have given myself a small electric shock when I accidentally touched a bulb filament - glass had broken and I didn't realise! Must remember to put glasses on before fiddling next time!

We still have the lights my parents had (50 years old, although many bulbs have been replaced). But we only have the tree lights on when someone is in the room, definitely never after we have gone to bed/when we are out. And we don't overload sockets either.