LED Christmas lights still annoy me. Let's try some more fixes. 

My favorite Christmas tradition is watching Alec slowly lose his sanity over the non-existence of such an obvious potential product. 🎄

It's always good to see Alec end "No Effort November" by putting too much work and going crazy in his attempt to get the perfect LED lights

In Sweden, all lighting around Christmas is either actual candles or made to imitate candles. I didn't realize how deeply this matters to me until I went to Lithuania for a December choir gig and everything was a cold blue. The entire point of December is to feel that you're fighting Darkness itself armed only with fire and a deeply rooted hope for another spring.

I think this is a really interesting cultural race against time; a lot of people who grew up with only or mostly the incandescent strings will have the same color preferences as Alec, but younger people growing up with the current LED colors will be acquiring an equally strong association with those lights. Whatever demand pressure may currently exist for LEDs that mimic old incandescents, the more time passes without them being available, the more the winds of nostalgia will start pushing the opposite direction.

"I've never had a need for an airbrush, I just use a comb" is one of the most wheeze summoning lines I have heard ever; excellent work!

It just doesn't feel like Christmas until we watch Alec meticulously handpaint hundreds of Christmas lights. I hope this tradition never dies!

My biggest annoyance with the blue-shift in Christmas lights is that they look "cold". I just really like the warmth of traditional bulbs. They look cozy during a cold time of year.

Rosco Colorine is what you want! Used in theatrical lighting design, it’s literally what you’re trying to recreate - a paint designed to dip lamps in to colour them. The only issue would be getting hold of it, I think it’s discontinued, but a theatrical or scenic chandler/supplier might have some in stock still. I’d recommend some to you, but I’m in the UK, I wouldn’t know who to suggest in the USA

Hobby mini painter here: you will 100% want to put at least some clear, if not gloss varnish on any acryllic-painted lights. It'll do yeoman's work protecting them from yellowing and weather, and gloss coats can help avoid sun bleaching. A hair dryer should be enough for heat-treating most paints. If you want to get the most out of that airbrush, pick up some acryllic thinner and medium and experiment with different thinner/medium/paint ratios (thinner and medium can also replace water and PVA glue with potentially better, more consistent results compared to your milk glass method, done correctly).

I’ve never felt so validated in my entire life. I HATE new Christmas lights and I’m so glad I know why now

I've never had a need for an air brush.... I use a comb. I laughed for well over a minute at this. These little gems of humor thrown in are one of the reasons I love watching your videos. Keep it up!

Alec trying to fix mini lights is right up there with watching your favorite Christmas movies.

Pointing out the true tone is not a sponsor just made me realize the shocking lack of sponsorship is channel has. I think that's part of why I find them such a joy to watch.

Who else looks forward with joy to the annual Christmas lights video? 🙂 Please don't ever stop this tradition!

I wish I was aware of this sooner! During the first half of the video, I kept thinking "lacquer and a spray gun, lacquer and a spray gun!", and then you got so close! The problem you're having with those paints, especially the red, is that they contain pigment instead of dye. Dye is a lot more expensive, so isn't present in entry level paints, but it's fully transparent. I can personally recommend Stewart MacDonald's alcohol dyes, as I've been using them for transparent color finishes for 15 years. Pricey, but they last _forever_ . You'd start with a lacquer, thinned 50/50 with acetone. Then for the concentrations you need, you want to pour some of the dye into a wide glass dish and let the alcohol evaporate until dry, so you're not altering the solvent mix of the lacquer too much. Then, mix the dyes in, testing the strength as you go, and removing the lacquer with acetone between tests (If they're plastic "bulbs" you'd want to test them first, or test with a glass bulb instead, as acetone could attack the plastic). Once you have the concentration right, spray away! The tinted lacquer will be perfectly transparent at any reasonable concentration. It won't tolerate outdoor usage as well, but it should last a few seasons outdoors until somebody manufactures what you're looking for. Should last a very long time indoors. Over time, the lacquer might crackle a bit, which would honestly be a very nice looking effect. To hold the bulbs, what comes to mind is the sleeve that holds the cartridges upright in a plastic case of .22 ammo. Not sure if you'd be able to buy just the sleeves or empty cases, but it's worth a look. I probably have a few I'd be happy to ship you.

A man after my own heart! I'm in the UK, so I grew up with cosy strands of incandescent lights that came in six colours: red, yellow, blue, green, orange and pink. It's likely that the Noma lights you mention at the end of the video come in this combination, so I wouldn't worry that it'll be all pastel and Easter-looking, because traditionally the oranges and pinks in UK-style Christmas lights would be just as bright as the other colours and I expect that's the look Noma is trying to replicate. I actually had no idea that you wouldn't normally have had those in old incandescent sets in America, but I have wondered over the past couple of decades (god, that dates me) why the new-style LED light sets always stuck so rigidly to four colours. I feel like they look too harsh, especially the blue - I bought a set last year that had equal numbers of all four colours, yet red was much less apparent on the finished tree and the blues and greens stood out intensely. For what it's worth, I find "warm white" LEDs a lot more tolerable, and oddly purple strands can look a lot calmer than blue (though you never seem to see purple in the multicolour strands, you can sometimes find it on its own), so I often use them inside Christmas village buildings.

My mother-in-law bought a new tree with LED's and nearly returned it last year until I told her I had watched the video from last year JUST the day prior. She put clear nail polish on each LED and it IMMENSELY reduced the hard light spots from each LED. So seriously, thank you for the legitimately useful experimentation!

The “storefront with a chasing LED sign letting you know they have CBD oil” dig might be the truest thing you’ve ever said 😅 The shameful, lazy ways LEDs get used drives me insane, you make me feel just slightly less neurotic and I thank you for it.

I'm a miniature painter and regularly use an Airbrush- never thought to give this a try for LED sets. If you do want to make the yellow a little less bright you could try hitting it with a layer of the red - one of the reasons I love airbrushing is that it's great at color blending on the surface you're painting.

My biggest problem with LED lights is the half-wave flicker on most of them. Even some rectified ones still flicker (albeit at 60hz). It's so hard to find a decent set of mini-lights that has a fully rectified one that also has a filter or regulator (basically a real DC converter).

Alec, can you please put all the Christmas lights videos into a playlist? The should be together so we can easily watch all of them as a holiday tradition. 😊

You honestly have no idea how soothing this channel is to me. The way you care so much about stuff like this validates me so much lmao, I always feel alone otherwise

I'd love to see a video talking about how the transition to LED lighting has completely screwed up vehicle headlights and made them way way too bright and what can be done to fix it.

Thank you for explaining something I had no words for. Something just BUGGED me about the colored LED strands I see around my neighborhood, but I couldn’t explain WHY until this video. Thanks so much!

From a nail tech. There are transparent gel polishes available (aliexpress too) which are both dark in color, and still transparent. I used them many times and they work great. Plus, they can also be diluted with isopropyl alcohol to maoe liquid enough to airbrush on (again used this technique and it works great in nailart). Plus being a uv resin based, the color should be quite durable, the lights could even be dipped in some good no wipe top coat which would make the final product stronger.

Several years ago, people began replacing the incandescent bulbs in their pinball machines with LEDs (there are generally about 100 individual bulbs in a pinball machine). This had many advantages -- they last longer, they generate less heat to warp plastics, they put less stress on ancient board components because they consume less power, and they emit less EV radiation (helping preserve the art on the playfield). BUT LEDs are also very harsh. It's not just that they're bright, it's that they transition from off to on instantly (well, nearly so, and many, many times faster than an incandescent bulb does). On a pinball machine, where the lights are constantly blinking, this harsh binary transition from off to on is very hard on the eyes. (there are also other technical issues with old pinball machine lamp matrices that cause LEDs to erroneously light up at times, due to the presence of tiny amounts of current that the original incandescent bulbs didn't react to -- this is called "ghosting" in pinball circles). Also, since AC power in the US operates at 60hz, the LEDs are actually blinking on and off 60 times per second. Incandescent bulbs didn't have enough time to cool down between those 60-times-per-second pulses, but with LEDs, this creates an almost subliminal flickering effect that gives some people headaches, and results in a generally harsh perception even if you don't consciously register why. To solve this, my friend Harold created a brilliant boardset called "LED OCD" and "GI OCD" which caught on like wildfire in the pinball community. Maybe you could create or posit something similar for Christmas lights. The LED OCD board makes LEDs look softer and fade smoothly like incandescents. It sits between the driver board and the controlled LEDs (generally the ones under the inserts on the playfield), and it does a few things -- first it re-drives the controlled LEDs at 250hz instead of 60hz, so that they don't flicker (LEDs don't have time to cool down in one 250th of a second). This also allows it to control transition states smoothly. It modifies the duty cycle of each light at a specific user-specified brightness and fade profile for absolute smoothness. The GI OCD board is for the General Illumination of the pinball machines (strings of lights that just generally light up the game). This one works by converting the power from AC to DC and using pulse width modulation to smoothly control the brightness of the LEDs. It can't make the bulbs themselves more diffusive, obviously, but that is a problem manufacturers could easily solve with decent quality frosted bulb covers (pinball LED manufacturers sell a multitude of varieties that work great). You can find more info about these boards by googling their name. CometPinball can no doubt put you in contact with Harold, their creator, if you want to learn more as well.

Alec, you and Tru-Tone are both obsessed with making Christmas lights look better and I love it. I would buy Tru-Tone mini light sets! My old incandescent mini sets are getting harder to maintain every year, but they look so much better than any LED sets currently for sale.

THANK YOU! It feels so validating to find someone who cares about this like I do! It’s a problem and it needs solving! I am also enough of a maniac to get out the airbrush for this task. Appreciate your efforts.

Alec oozes personality and has such a refreshingly honest and relatable voice. He can make a 20 minute video on lights and dishwashers entertaining as well as educational.

YES to all of this. I was driving home last night and I saw what was on display and literally asked myself "what the heck?". I remember the blue incandescent lights on our Christmas tree in the 90s and it's absolutely not the same. Glad I'm not the only one!

You are 100% on point with this. I can't stand the LED look, can't live with the incandescent energy waste.

This was wildly entertaining. Thank you. And I struggle even with “warm” LEDs. I haven’t seen any that don’t look harsh. Ever. Their brightness seems to stick around for a half-second after I move my gaze away. So I’m hoping we have enough incandescent replacement bulbs to last until someone makes the perfect replacement. Thanks for the video!

The biggest challenge with trying to make authentic looking multi-colored LED bulbs is that everyone forgets that the colors used to pigment the glass of the incandescent ones aren't pure colors either. The blue is practically indigo, the green is a forest green, and the red has hints of fuchsia. All because they're trying to counteract the yellowish hue of the bulb filament within. It only kinda-sorta works, which is why you get such an interesting spectra of light from such bulbs.

For the airbrushing solution, if you're looking to dramatically increase the durability and colour-staying power, try an airbrush varnish! When applied properly it doesn't effect the colour (So I assume the light output would go mostly unchanged) and it's what's commonly used for miniature painting to protect models from grubby dirty gamer fingers. As an added bonus, it can be applied after drying, each colour, so it doesn't add much to your current process.

You nailed this 1000% I have been saying this for years, modern LED christmas lights look nothing like classic christmas lights, some of them look more like Halloween colors instead. What makes true classic vintage christmas colors are the light pastel pink, pastel red, pastel blue, pastel green, pastel yellow. Even better when they come with multiple pattern changing colors and the vintage music christmas player.

I used different color Sharpies on a short 3000K led strain. The results are AMAZING! Felt like rediscovering a shard of childhood. The colors are so beautiful!

If someone manufacturers and sells what Alec wants (small Christmas light strands with warm white LED bulbs underneath warm-tone green, red, yellow, and blue covers), I can guarantee I will be a loyal customer. I hate laser-blue lights on people's houses during Christmastime. They make my eye sockets literally burn.

Please never stop this kind of videos, I swear watching you painting lights just gives me hope in this cold and cruel world

The length you had to go to get this project done is giving me a much needed confirmation I am not alone in my weirdness. Even better is the fact that this video has over 900 k views. That's quite comforting, to be honest.

Just found this channel recently. I really appreciate this specific type of knowledge. Thank you!!

I'm so glad I'm not the only one bothered all the way through my bones and down into my soul about the awful LED-laser christmas lights

modern christmas lights drive me INSANE with their coldness, thank you so much for raising awareness about this problem and taking action!!

You could also resin print caps for any bulb, all UV resins for 3d printers are translucent, and you can simply add alcohol pigments to clear resin After dialing in the resin and pigment combo, it’s easy to make a lot of them

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has this gripe! Thanks for telling me about the Tru-Tone lights... will definitely have to pick up a set!

I love how unhinged this gets. Your science videos and light explainers are what brought me in, but I also really appreciate how you work to capture the aesthetics of yesteryear with the advantages of modern technology. It feels really grounded and reasonable until you see the lengths you are willing to go through to accomplish this goal, like a paladin with a really obscure oath. Thank you so much for your content. Edit: I also really hate the way the LED blue almost makes things feel darker.

You perfectly explained something I subconsciously noticed for years but never put my finger on, that modern coloured lights just don't have that same warm Christmasy feeling as they used to

This brings joy to my heart! I thought I was the only one that felt this way about led Christmas lights.

I *love* your series on christmas lights. As someone who has quite a bit of nostalgia for the non Tron style lighting, I'm glad there are beacons appearing in the darkness.

"Gamer vomit" is a perfect descriptor. This year I caught up on several years' worth of these LED Christmas lights videos, and I never realized exactly WHY I disliked the modern ones, but I realized that I find myself sensitive to blue light even in my own house with an RGB bulb. It is the pure blue light that I realize hurts my eyes. And yeah when driving around the other night, I noticed how BLUE all the lights in people's yards were. It's so overpowering!

If you want to give this a shot again, certain hobby paint manufacturers make clear paints specifically meant to be used for clear plastic. Tamiya makes some acrylic based paints that work really well with an airbrush. I would give one of those a shot. The paints you use look opaque before applied; the paints I'm thinking about look clear even coming out of the bottle.

I love your channel, and this is my favorite video so far! Now I seem to need to review past Christmas videos, from what I see in the comments. Looking forward to more!

I've had the same gripe for years. I found some decent color-changing sets that have a warm white and pretty good colors, but couldn't find them for sale this year. I absolutely love the DIY approach.

These videos have become a Christmas tradition at this point. I'm not sure if I hope that some manufacturer creates something to satiate Alec or that nothing ever materializes and Alec just has to keep trying different techniques to keep the videos coming. I am glad to see that the airbrush method looks to be the most promising so far.

PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP!! It's refreshing to see I'm not alone in wanting LED Christmas lights that look like traditional incandescents. I gave up trying to find a solution for LEDs. I still use my incandescents because they just look so much better. I have been considering investing in a set of Twinkly Strings, but I can't stand those retina searing LEDs on my Christmas Tree.If Tru Tone would make them, I will definitely buy a set or 30.

Dude, you are my kind of crazy. I work all the time to try and make things like they used to be. Thanks for the tip about the True Tone lights, the big bulbs are my favorite. Part of the appeal of the colored coating on the bulbs is that they would fade into softer versions of themselves as they aged. My family has to also listen to me rant every year about the laser led lights. Love your channel. Keep up the good work!

We bought a couple boxes of those Tru-Tone c9 bulbs for the first time this year, and they are just perfect! I love having nice old school lights that aren't the temperature of the sun!

I love that this man found his niche. And an audience. I really like the breaking down of highly technical things I've never really known how they worked. Idk. It's brings a warmth that the audience is broad enough and kind enough that this channel can exist

I just love this man"s obsession with something so trivial that it's not even noticeable to me. Please never change

Your sense of humor, your obsession and your willingness to investigate and solve these pain points, absolutely love it. Where can I find a friend in my life like you?

This video inspired me to sand down the pleasingly large, but ridiculously transparent led Christmas lights I got from Target a few years ago. It's made all the difference! From cold and harsh to warm and inviting.

I want that sweater

"Modern LED Christmas light sets usually make it look like a gaming PC exploded on your front lawn." Thank you for that, plus all your other other descriptions along these lines, including "unicorn vomit". I can't remember laughing this hard while watching any of your other videos. And I needed those laughs. For the record, I am a curmudgeon when it comes to LEDs. I buy LEDs for specific fixtures in specific rooms of my house and label them in the spare bulbs box so that I get the best balance of color and intensity in each room of my house. I think you might be less curmudgeonly and more a*** retentive when it comes to LEDs. But I mean that all in good fun. Your videos are always a perfect blend of well-researched information and entertainment, and I often recommend your channel to people I know.

I absolutely love your sarcasm and weirdly very informative!!

ok, since watching this, I have attempted to cut the end off an old incandescent Christmas mini bulb, (not recommended) and then got lost in a search for: glass beads, acrylic beads, acrylic tubing, the lights you held up at the end, silicone tubing, cellophane, lighting gel, heat shrink tubing, glass paint and nail polish. My profile picture is of a strange perspex thing I found in the street and flang fairy lights on it twenty years ago. I've been through several sets of incandescent lights and I'm also looking for a LED solution that looks as good as incandescent. Alec, you are definitely not alone, and I thank you for your time and for giving us a new Christmas tradition. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year when it comes x

I‘m actually amazed, we here in germany have „Lampenlack“ a lacquer especially made for incandescent lightbulbs… so if I‘d were to try I‘d just buy Lampenlack and dip the LED. Oh and yes it is available in green, blue, red and yellow as well as a few other colors. (Orange for example 😉)

My biggest issue with LED Christmas lights is how many seem to have PWM flicker, so whendriving by or darting your eyes around you see multiple instances of the same lights.

I'm so glad you're making these videos. I'm the same way about lights but haven't the resources to experiment.

Noma has always been one of the fantastic lighting companies for Christmas. If anyone can do what you're asking, it'd definitely be them. They have or have had some great products that were just different from everyone else

Try UV-curable resin. It's pretty thick, so it sticks well, and you can easily do multiple coatings. And the best of all, just shine a UV light on it and it's ready within seconds. I'm using it myself with fluorescent dyes to create vibrant red and orange colors from blues.

Random thought for the painting jig, if you ever get around to the larger scale painting: instead of a single jig to hold the ones you're painting, try making a jig to hold the whole strand, plus a stencil to cover ¾ of the bulbs, so you can just move the stencil down one bulb distance each time you want to switch colors.

I agree. The deep colors are much preferred to the pastel colors and especially the high kelvin rating & harsh LED non colored lights. Thanks for the seasonal update.

Thank you for being committed to the bit.

Just wanted to pop in to say that I can relate to the level of holiday light insanity here and fully embrace it! My lighting theme for years now has been alternating red and white bulbs for a peppermint/candy cane theme, but the options for this were just not there when I started. My first go round (with incandescents) was buying half solid white strands and half red strands, then painstakingly swapping every other bulb, nearly destroying my fingers in the process. When those strands eventually failed and I was on the hunt for an LED replacement, I ended up using the nail polish solution myself and painting every other bulb of my white LED strands with red polish. It's been at least 2 years, maybe 3, since I did that, and the red is still going strong despite the cold snowy weather where I live! I will say, though, the exterior lights have all been north-facing, so they don't get harsh southern sun. If your airbrush solution doesn't stand up, definitely try nail polish again and do a durability test! 🙂

I never thought about it and why I had an aversion to the multi-colored LED strings as of late until I joined Alec on his annual descent into Christmas light madness, and now I see why I've shifted towards "warm" white/non-blue white lights.

I’m just popping in to wish Alec a merry Christmas and happy holidays. I find great joy in his educational style and he’s the root cause of my informed opinions on fairy lights, microwaves, can openers, toaster design and more. He is among the top reasons my family asks me “why do you know that?” When random topics come up.

This is the most fascinating channel I'm subscribed to. I just watched your 5-year old video on PS1 copyright tech, and it was just as good as your latest videos. I get the feeling you won't, but don't ever change.

For me, the issue with LED lights isn't the vibrancy of the color (which I like) but rather the total lack of diffusion. They are like tiny flashlights rather than tiny lamps. That, and the fact that many of them use a cheap half-wave rectifier so they are only on half the time and the 30hz blinking is noticeable when you move your eyes

“I’ve never had a need for an airbrush, usually I use a comb” is the exact reason why I love Technology Connections and am subscribed 😂

100%W agree with you on this front! I love the benefits of LED lights, but i very much dislike the colors themselves for Christmas, the old school glow of the lights is what always made me very happy.

You are not weird, my friend… The rest of the world is weird - to us! I find your special humor, attention to detail, and absolute brilliance, so awesome and refreshing and always worth my time. I wish you and I could just have a few nights talking because I know it would be a wonderful and growth experience. Keep up the great work and thank you for all that you do. PS. Looove the outtakes!

I've been ranting about LED Christmas lights to everyone I know, and I'm pretty sure they all think I'm crazy. Just happy to know that another person out there in the world is also bothered by them!!

Your sassiness about which colors belong in Christmas and which belong in Easter gives me life, Alec. (Also, you're absolutely correct in every way.)

Wondered why a vid like this wasn't out till now. Totally agree with you and unicorn vomit is just perfect description.

Hey Alec! We fixed your problem, our VintaGlo line of Christmas lights are what you are looking for... And our Yule Multi Mix is your preferred 4-color Multi :)

i need to know how we can get Alec elected to public office/policymaker. every point he makes is not only well-researched and logical, but also happens to make the most sense. i can't go on road trips now without getting annoyed at car makers in 2023 that are still using a red brake light as the turn signal. so many of your videos are so founded in reason, i would just love for the world to be more like this. that includes easier-on-the-eyes LED xmas lights ;)

I am so glad there's someone else out there who feels the same way I do about fairy lights and will go to the same lengths that I would to get modern LED lights to look like the lights of my childhood.

Another excellent video, I aspire to your clarity and wit. Chapeau!

You fight the fight we need, but not one anyone knows about. Keep it up, for me, and later generations

I genuinely want to him to find lights that he's happy with, but at the same time, I look forward to the holiday light video every year. If they ever solve this problem, I still hope he finds a reason to talk about his obsession with holiday lights.

The ambiance of Christmas used to be so much more magical and warm, and it's LED harsh lighting that plays a major role in that!

You have described a problem I had no way to explain! Your my hero. Im so off put by the LED xmas lights ive gone with just white and red, maybe i can get some more colorful ones now 🎉

Being a longtime fan, I was sceptical about the differences here, just assuming that you're being curmudgeonly, but when you showed the difference between what you achieved vs store bought LEDs at the end, the difference is undeniable. This is indeed a worthy quest, and nobody can ever again question your commitment to the bit. Merry Christmas!

This mini-series is a better introduction to the holiday season than sugar cookies, the same Christmas music all over again, and slipping and falling on ice combined.

I can’t believe how specifically identical out tastes in Christmas lights are. I’ve been trying to explain it to people for years, but couldn’t word it right. I thought I was the only one on an obsessive hunt for those exact colours. I feel like this entire video was made just for me. The past two weeks I’ve been looking for not only those warm traditional 4 colour string lights in LED, but 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 for a transparent coloured paint that comes in many colours to paint a few cylindrical lamp shades that are made up of a wall of 280 little plastic “crystals” that I wanted to paint in the colours and shapes of tetrominoes fitting together, so that the light would shine through and come out coloured on the walls. Perfect timing, perfect video, perfect information, perfect links, perfect taste in Christmas lights. Never change Alec, never change.

I never thought about the difference between the incandescent and LED Xmas lights but now that you mention it there is something that I will call a 'homey thing' missing with the bright LEDs. Thx for doing this and sharing. 👍👍👍👍👍

Yes!!! I agree! Warm white LED strings with a coloured glass/cap would be wonderful, and yes, pinks and purples do not belong on Christmas palettes.

I do theatrical lighting, and if I had a light that was too bright and too blue, I would use an orange color correction (also known as CTO) and a neutral density (gray) gel. If you put those together, you get a brown gel, that pushes the color warmer and cutting down the brightness. Now, I know that modern day gel is plastic sheets, so maybe going back to the paint or nail polish in a translucent brown may help knock things down to what you're looking for!

Just a heads up: If you decide (or need to) try resin again, get some UV resin instead of epoxy resin. You can set it in about a minute with a black light and could theoretically build up a few coats of it pretty quickly to get the right level of dye you'd need for a solid dark blue. I don't think it tends to be all that runny either. A source of quality UV resin I keep coming across is Sophie and Toffee, though I haven't tried it out myself yet. One hobby at a time!

So you managed to teach me a new word, “ennui”, and simultaneously made it rhyme as you so subtly do throughout your videos. I must say. You have a talent for entertainment through nuance and precise placement of pronunciations for particular words and phrases. I do so look forward to your videos whenever they arrive to the RU-vids.

Hey, thanks for checking out the demo! I'm glad you enjoyed it.