Many thanks to readers who spotted the caution — Do not hang electric lights on aluminum Christmas trees — on the website about vintage Christmas lights. With some additional research, I uncovered a news release from the Consumer Product Safety Commission — CPSC Announces Holiday Season Decorating Tips — that also warned of the potential for electrical hazards when you combine metallic Christmas trees with electric lights:
-Never use electric lights on a metallic tree. The tree can become charged with electricity from faulty lights, and a person touching a branch could be electrocuted.
The CPSC news release has a list of all kinds of other issues to check for when decorating for the holidays.
Seems that aluminum is a conductor of electricity, so if you put electric lights on it, you have the necessary ingredients to create shock and/or fire. So take notice – and take care! The smart — and easy — thing to do with vintage aluminum trees: Hang ornaments…and use a color wheel. In fact, it seems that color wheels were devised to get right around the electric-hazard issue of stringing lights onto aluminum.
This is an opportune time for me to remind readers that on this blog, I do not generally allow readers to offer safety or environmental advice. I advise folks to empower themselves consulting with pros/experts regarding their own particular situation. This precaution regarding aluminum Christmas trees and electric lights, though, is validated on a government website, so I thought it would be of value to readers, many of whom may have aluminum trees, which only seem to grow and grow as a desired collectible. See our Be Safe/Renovate Safe page for more info.
Relatedly, the U.S. Fire Administration has a page on holiday fires and other pages on other home-safety issues when it comes to fire prevention.
sablemable says
My vintage aluminum tree is absolutely beautiful with the color wheel! From the outside it looks as if there are a trillion different colored lights twinkling and sparking. Everyone has said we have the prettiest tree on the street!
Hugh says
I use three color wheels on mine. They light it up good.
Harrietta says
Wonderful tip about 3 color wheels. I bought an LED Par Light, and it lights my tree beautifully, just mesmerizing. I might buy another led par light for more splendor.
Kelley says
I did this too!! Perfection and no chance of a fire!!
Joe says
I wonder if this is still true for the LED light strings? they are pretty much factory sealed. I’m rockin’ a color light wheel now though, even though sometimes it decides it doesn’t want to spin.
Anita says
I love the vintage aluminum trees. They have a completely different style than the reproduction ones. I bought a repro one last year b/c I wanted a taller height and wanted lights on it. So why can’t someone make a repro that is taller than 6′ that looks like the originals???? And can safely have lights?
Kendal says
It is physically and humanly IMPOSSIBLE to make a aluminum christmas tree that can safely be decorated with lights… Because aluminum is a CONDUCTOR (carries electricity), they manufactured the color wheel for this purpose. Even a repro is impossible.
http://www.ndt-ed.org/EducationResources/HighSchool/Electricity/conductorsinsulators.htm
Graham at Chadwell Chronicles says
Good tips. We actually just got an aluminum tree a few days ago– thought you might want to see it. 🙂
http://www.chadwellchronicles.com/2009/12/our-christmas-tree.html
Mick says
Pam, you have NO IDEA how many times i have said that this Season! haha Before School let out I was living with 3 other room mates ALL of which tired to put lights on my 4 ft Aluminum tree!!! haha So much to th epaint I made a little sign that said “LISTEN UP!… you can not put ELECTRIC lights on an ALUMINUM tree… bad things WILL happen” No one got shocked but still, it could be pretty dangerous!
MrsErinD says
Thanks Pam. Yes, I was going to tell you, I recieved my tree yesterday and on the instructions it says to not use lights it’s a shock hazard.
But it’s all decorated with ornaments and you guys were right, doesn’t need anything else, it’s so shiny a sparkly on it’s own I love it!
Cindy says
Last night I put up and decorated the silver Christmas tree with my mother’s old 1960s Christmas decorations. Now I need a color wheel. There are specialized lights that you can put on these trees but they are quite pricey.
Janice says
Pam, thanks for the safety advice. I absolutely love my aluminum tree and color wheel and look forward to putting it up every year. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard with tones of nostalgia, “My grandmother had one of these”, from my friends who see it for the first time. Keep up the good work and Happy Holidays!
denise says
Totally makes sense about the color wheel! Guess I’ll never be owning an aluminum tree, I like the sparkly lights too much!