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Well, it happened. I had a true Clark Griswold moment. No, not the fun and sometimes crazy moments road trippin’ it with the family (although I’ve had plenty of those). I’m talking about the epic battle with my Christmas lights! Now, I don’t always put up lights every year, but this year I thought, “you know what, I’m gonna do and get started early!” So, that’s what I did. I thought, how great it would be to build a winter wonderland by streaming lights all around the six crepe myrtles in my front yard. Then I’ll cover the bushes, and the front porch columns, and across the roof line. It'll be awesome!
I didn’t have quite enough lights to do the job. So off I went to a store that has very low prices which I’ll leave unnamed at this point. I was excited to see I could get a stream of 300 lights for about $8. So I started with a few boxes and went back home to get started. Of course I went through our old lights to see which ones worked and which ones didn’t. But for the most part, we had a good amount that worked. I went back to the yard and started wrapping all the trees. Up and down, up and down. Finally when I was done, I wanted to test it and even thought, “maybe I’ll get the family out hear to watch. Surely it won’t fail like Clark’s.” …But it did.
I plugged in the lights then suddenly half lit up and the other half burned out. Or at least I think they did. What could of happened? I know I checked all the lights and most of these are new! So I unwrapped the first half that were out to try and figure it out. To make a long story short, back and forth I went taking some down and hanging them back and then drum roll please….nothing. They went out again. What the heck?! By this time I had spent at least a couple of days just on the trees and going back and forth to buy more from the low price store. So I said, “forget it!” (and probably a few other words). I unwrapped all the trees and just used the working ones on our street side fence and then hung the ones on the front porch. And guess what, some of those went out too!
I can’t begin to tell you how my festive Christmas spirit became quickly to a halt in that moment. But then I had an epiphany! “Maybe it’s these lights from the low price store!” So, I took off the first strand which was the only one on the porch and left my old lights up that seem to be working. I headed out the closest home improvement store and bought a couple of boxes from there. A little more expensive, but guess what? THEY WORKED!
So here’s the point, don’t go cheap when it comes to Christmas lights! haha. Well, at least that’s one point. The lesson is, everyone is always looking to do things cheaper. I’ve seen over the years how a client has tried to either do a video themselves or hire someone “a lot cheaper” and then become disappointed with the final result. They have a vision in their mind of what the video could be, but then it falls short leaving them spending money almost twice as much money.
So take a lesson from the Christmas lights, do it right the first time and pay for the better ____________. I know I will.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!