It was a Christmas Miracle!

So there we were, awkwardly staring at one another in utter disbelief that nobody could figure it out. It was a week before Christmas, and all through the house, your narrator was fuming�.I could smash my mouse! We were trying to put up our Christmas tree, and we weren�t having much luck. Bah Humbug!!

My family and I went out early that morning to find the perfect tree. I filled up a thermos with hot apple cider, and got the kids ready to go. The three of them got on our big old sleigh, and my husband and I took turns pulling them through the bush. We live out in the country, and we have this majestic forest on the back of our land. Every year we go out together and find the perfect tree, and the children each have a hand in cutting it down. It has become a wonderful family tradition.I decided to remove the lights from the tree, and swore that I would find the bulb that was causing us so much trouble. I spent the next hour or so changing and replacing each and every bulb on the string. I plugged them back in, and nothing happened. I was fast becoming the Scrooge!By this time my husband was playing on the computer, and the kids were having a snowball fight in the yard. I decided it was time for some Egg Nog. When I returned, my husband was examining each of the bulbs. He told me that the circuit was being broken somehow, and that in time he would figure it out. Five minutes later, the lights were aglow! In his hand, he held one little bulb.Apparently the bulbs that we use today have their standard filament, but they also have a secondary shunt wire that maintains the circuit if the filament burns out. As it turns out, the shunt wire in this one little bulb was defective. A short while later we were all sipping hot cocoa under our beautiful sparkling tree. To me, it was nothing short of a Christmas miracle!

Apparently the bulbs that we use today have their standard filament, but they also have a secondary shunt wire that maintains the circuit if the filament burns out. As it turns out, the shunt wire in this one little bulb was defective. A short while later we were all sipping hot cocoa under our beautiful sparkling tree. To me, it was nothing short of a Christmas miracle!

TV stars join shopping centre's big switch-on

THE festive countdown continued yesterday as more Christmas lights flickered into life.

Village bad boy Cain Dingle and hapless chef Marlon Dingle - played by actors Jeff Hordley and Mark Charnock - hosted the entertainment.Pam and Ian then led a Christmas carol sing-along accompanied by the Newcastle City Temple Band of the Salvation Army.CAPTION(S):SPECIAL GUESTS Pam Royle and Ian Payne with the cast of Jack and the Beanstalk switching on the Christmas lightsNewcastle's Eldon Square shopping centre welcomed ITV Tyne Tees presenters Pam Royle and Ian Payne for its big switch-on.The pair were joined by cast members from the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk, which is being staged at the city's Journal Tyne Theatre.

SPECIAL GUESTS Pam Royle and Ian Payne with the cast of Jack and the Beanstalk switching on the Christmas lights

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* The Rev Christine Bullimore led the Sunday service at St Michael's Church. The theme was Advent and the first of the five candles in the Advent wreath was lit. The congregation was reminded that God called the patriarchs to live by the light of faith and Come Lord, Soon, was sung - Lord Jesus, light of the world...be born in our hearts at Christmas.

The opening hymn was Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus. The Gospel reading from Matthew 24, verses 36-44 advised the congregation on vigilance as the Son of Man would be coming at an unexpected hour. The two associated readings were from Isaiah 2, verses 1-5 and Romans 13, 11-end. Sunday School children Sam, Freddie, Lucy and Oscar showed the congregation the Advent calendars that they had made, featuring nativity scenes behind each of the 24 Advent windows. It being John Ryder's birthday in the coming week, the congregation sang Happy Birthday to him. Notice was given of the church choir Christmas concert at 7.30pm on Thursday December 16, with Sapphire as guests and the festive delights of mince pies and mulled wine on offer. The Advent course continues at 7.45pm on Tuesday evenings December 7, 14 and 21. Tea, coffee and biscuits were served at the close of the service and there was the opportunity to visit the Tradecraft stall to purchase a range of Christmas goodies, as well as the usual groceries and cards.

Smithtown replaces street lamps

While some Long Islanders light menorahs and others prepare to light Christmas trees, the Town of Smithtown is engaged in the biggest lighting project of the season, replacing old fashioned street light fixtures with new technology.

Orth said Los Angeles is replacing 140,000 traditional street light fixtures with LED fixtures, which save energy and are environmentally friendly. Seattle and Mesa, Ariz., are replacing thousands. Anchorage, Alaska also is replacing old-fashioned street lights.Smithtown went ahead with the installation after completing its own test of three lights."They're being used across the country and around the world," Orth said. "There are energy and maintenance savings.""Eventually, I think LED will surpass the incumbent sources of lighting for street lights," Orth said. "The technology continues to improve. You've got an opportunity to reduce your energy costs by 40 to 60 percent.""The white light helps people see better," Orth said. "It renders colors much more true than what you'd see under the orange of high pressure sodium."He said most high pressure sodium light bulbs used for street lighting are rated at 20,000 to 24,000 hours of life, while longer lasting LEDs typically last 100,000 hours.While Smithtown goes ahead with its lighting switch, other municipalities on Long Island are moving ahead more slowly."Street lights out there contain mercury, a hazardous material that has to be disposed of," Orth said of another plus for the new technology.The Town of Oyster Bay is doing a pilot with six LEDs and the Town of Brookhaven is testing five.LED light fixtures over the past few years have started to catch on as the technology reaches the point where the lights are bright enough and cheap enough to attract interest, replacing orange, high pressure sodium fixtures.The Town of Smithtown over the past month has begun replacing 1,110 street lights with energy efficiency light emitting diode or LED fixtures, as it becomes the first area on Long Island to flip the switch on this technology on a large scale.The New York State Department of Transportation, meanwhile, set up six on the Long Island Expressway and New York City is testing six on FDR Drive.The town is replacing orange-tinted, high-pressure sodium street lights with energy-efficient fixtures equipped with light emitting diodes expected to save $75,000 in annual maintenance and $150,000 in energy expenses.High-pressure sodium, which produces illumination by igniting sodium gas, has been the primary source for roadway lighting since the 1960s. While they're more expensive than traditional fixtures, LED lights are being touted as cheaper in the long run due to longer lives and energy efficiency."We see it as the biggest revolution in the lighting industry since the light bulb," said Kevin Orth, vice president of sales for Sturtevant, Wisc.-based Beta LED, which manufactured the fixtures being used by Smithtown. "It's not an evolution. This is truly a revolution in lighting."

"Eventually, I think LED will surpass the incumbent sources of lighting for street lights," Orth said. "The technology continues to improve. You've got an opportunity to reduce your energy costs by 40 to 60 percent."

5 Ways to Decorate with Christmas Lights

When it comes to Christmas lights, the obvious place to use them is on the Christmas tree. Have you considered other ways in which to decorate your home with them however? If you are a little bit creative you can use all sorts of led lights and fairy lights to decorate the house at Christmas time and really bring festivity into your home. Small lights are very atmospheric and are one of the best ways and inexpensive ways to decorate your home. It is always a sad day in January when the lights have to come down, but there is always next year to look forward to!

The idea of framing an entire house is catching on around the world. Every year more and more families are using fairy lights to light up their entire house. If you like this idea but want to tone it down a bit or indeed save on the electricity bill then simply using lights to frame the garden shed or other out building works well. This provides a lovely view from the windows of the house at night and makes a feature out of something that for the rest of the year is not generally acknowledged. You can make it as garish as you like too because it is for your eyes only!BuildingsThere are some great ways to use Christmas lights to decorate the home at Christmas time. With just a bit of creativity you can cheaply turn your home into a beautiful grotto. Coloured lights such as blue Christmas lights work just as well as plain, and with a range of outdoor Christmas lights available, no part of the home or garden need go without!Trees and FlowerbedsFireplacesFraming fireplaces or stoves in the house is another great way to use lights. A fireplace makes the perfect backdrop for strings of lights and one compliments the other beautifully. Because the fireplace is often the centrepiece of the room, having it framed in lights will mean the eye is immediately drawn to it. This is especially worthwhile if you are planning on having a Christmas party as it provides quick and easy decoration in the sitting room where the party is likely to be taking place. To go further with this idea, you can hang stockings up between the lights to add more traditional decoration.BookshelvesWalkways / Hallways / StairsLast but not least, why not line your book shelves in the house. This can really brighten up the room and provide plenty of festive cheer in the home. Plain white lights work well for this purpose as do coloured lights of course. You won't want to take them down in January!Linking the walkways in your home is a great way to make the whole house sparkle. Hallways or stairs are perfect places to run strings of lights. You could weave the lights around banisters or simply line the walls. It provides a "Christmas Grotto" feeling and because the area is likely to be quite small, it is not too much. Your kids will especially love this form of decorating. To make it really fun you should use coloured lights, or to go for a more sophisticated look plain white lights are ideal.

There are some great ways to use Christmas lights to decorate the home at Christmas time. With just a bit of creativity you can cheaply turn your home into a beautiful grotto. Coloured lights such as blue Christmas lights work just as well as plain, and with a range of outdoor Christmas lights available, no part of the home or garden need go without!

Solar Powered Christmas Lights - Indulge In Your Holidays The Green Way

Even inside the chill of winter these types of lights possess the capability to stand out all by way of the night. This could be facilitated merely by positioning the lights in a way that they obtain direct sunlight throughout the day.

You will discover a selection of lights that you'll be able to choose from. In these you will not just obtain the string lights with several coloured bulbs. Moreover you are able to also get a wide plethora of colours from which you can pick the light which suits your style.Now you can find many different solar lighting solutions designed specifically for use at Christmas along with other holiday occasions. Thanks to new technology, miniaturization and also the use of LED lights, you are able to now locate lots of new and innovative models that previously could only dream of.You option from a full diversity of available styles of solar Christmas lights and then carry them on the ground, a roofline or on a fence. The solar board included may perhaps be applied in any of this fields.A typical scenario might be a string of say 60 lights on a tree along the road which are charged by the sun throughout the day and automatically turn on at dusk and run for about eight hours throughout the night with out energy costs for everybody.It is the moment to save lots of dollars. Once you choose solar powered Christmas lights, you will have the ability to save funds no matter what the time of the season. Outside solar lights is one of the most effective paths you may hold on energy cost when selecting to bring lights outside for your house or garden.These solar powered Christmas lights are accessible in designs cast within the forms of Santa Claus, reindeer and angels which light up the region outside your house. Solar powered lights may also be used as alluring Christmas tree lights.A lot of the solar lights possess a reserve battery and so even on a rainy day the backup power of these lights makes certain that your Christmas festivity remains vibrant and exciting. Thus there is no way you'll be disappointed when you use these solar powered Christmas lights.These sorts of Christmas lights are typically used to outline gates and eye-port panes. This is in fact the most successful answer to make use of your lamps since glass flexes aside gentle and provides your solar units an extra improvement in terms of electrical power.Solar powered Christmas lights removes the needless misuse of electrical power. Solar lights choices too provide flexibleness.Really should you embellish your home exterior you'll possibly be envied by all of the neighbors. Even though they are blowing fuses attempting to maintain their yuletide light glowing you will have the ability to show your decorations making use of the reduced power LED lighting with out the fear of triggering any power outages or incredibly expensive energy costs.

Really should you embellish your home exterior you'll possibly be envied by all of the neighbors. Even though they are blowing fuses attempting to maintain their yuletide light glowing you will have the ability to show your decorations making use of the reduced power LED lighting with out the fear of triggering any power outages or incredibly expensive energy costs.

Fairy Lights are not just for Christmas

Nothing signals the arrival of Christmas more than lights being strung up around people�s houses and in the streets. Those twinkling bulbs are wonderful for lighting up the home and bringing Christmas spirit indoors. Lights however are not just for Christmas. There is no reason that lights shouldn�t be used in the home and garden throughout the year as the small twinkling bulbs and illumination they provide makes for a warm and cosy ambience at any time of the year.

In the garden it is important to get special outdoor lights as traditional indoor wiring and rain do not mix well. Small lights can be used in trees to provide illumination against the night sky. They can also be used to highlight certain aspects of the garden such as plants or ornaments. One innovative way to use little lights is by weaving a battery operated selection amongst the branches of some trees to provide a starry canopy underneath which to sit. The next time you are entertaining guests you should seat the dinner table underneath the tree for a romantic and stylish atmosphere.One of the nice things about lights for the home is that they are so variable. There are a whole host of different colours available and plenty of different types of illumination too. Flashing, flickering, pulsing or a mixture of all are just some of the different lighting effects available. Often the surrounding bulbs are different shapes and sizes too. Lights encased in stars or angels or icicles or even fairies themselves are just some of the most popular types of Christmas lights that people choose to display.Small lights for the home have gone through a bit of a dramatic change in recent years. Technology has progressed somewhat and now those fiddly filament bulbs that seemed to break with the slightest touch and trip the electricity as soon as a toaster was used at the same time have been replaced with a funky and efficient variety of light emitting diodes. Not only are these types of lights much more energy efficient saving up to 90% of energy used by the previous filament bulbs, but they last much longer and the glow they give out is much brighter too. They are also able to be handled without the threat of being broken! The way small lights are powered has changed too and nowadays it is possible to buy solar operated lights as well as battery operated packs. Battery powered lights in particular dramatically cut the amount of wires on display and enable the lights to be placed anywhere at all as there is no need for a power supply to be close by.The wonderful effect that fairy lights and LED lights have on the home and garden make them a year round decoration. LED Christmas lights continue to be the most popular type to use, although this is a shame as fairy lights can bring style and elegance into the home and garden all year round at very little cost. Try hanging up one or two sets around the home to see for yourself! There is no way after Christmas you will be wanting to take them home, so instead leave them up and continue to enjoy their sparkle!

The wonderful effect that fairy lights and LED lights have on the home and garden make them a year round decoration. LED Christmas lights continue to be the most popular type to use, although this is a shame as fairy lights can bring style and elegance into the home and garden all year round at very little cost. Try hanging up one or two sets around the home to see for yourself! There is no way after Christmas you will be wanting to take them home, so instead leave them up and continue to enjoy their sparkle!