The always reliable Miniature Christmas light has a permanent place on most families Christmas trees and homes. These lights are used on everything from simple light strings and icicle lights to the most elaborate Christmas Displays you can imagine. They are small, usually about 1 1/2" from the top of the bulb to the bottom of the socket with bulb spacings that range anywhere from 2.5" to 8", the most common spacing being around 4". Mini light strings have varying bulb counts, 15, 20, 35, 50, 100, 150, and sometimes more depending on the style and manufacturer . Generally a standard mini lights set with a end to end connector only allows for the connection of no more than 3 sets, but there are some commercial sets available that allow for greater connectivity. The voltages of mini lights also vary ranging from 2 to 3.5 volts generally.

Mini lights go by a couple different names, some more politically correct than others. Fairy lights, midget lights, and sometimes just the general Christmas Light are used to name and or describe minis. The uses for these type of bulbs are pretty much limitless, since you can get them with so many options they can pretty much fit the bill on any application. There are battery powered sets, Random Twinkle sets, Chasing strings, Multi function sets that do up to 8 different animations (chase, fade, flash, etc..) , Icicle, Nets, and more. They have had a steady grown in popularity with the craft community, the shorter no end connector (or NEC to us) sets are used for all types of DIY Home craft projects.

The problems that used to plague old mini light strings have started to disappear, used to when a single bulb would burn out the whole string would die nowadays bulbs are shunted on the inside. What dose that mean? Well, when non shunted bulb burnt out there was no wire or anything to continue the flow of electricity, but when a bulb is shunted if the filament burns out there is still some what for the electricity to travel through the burnt out bulb to the next working bulb. This simple fix doesn't cure all the problems that can cause these light strings to fail but it does help eliminate a problem that people have a had to deal with for years.