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How many strings of Christmas lights have you gone through over the last few years?
Do you dump the decorations as soon as they stop working and dip into the shops to pick up a new set? Or did you know that you could fix them with a simple hack? Check it out here:
TikTok creator @tattedxmoex discovered the trick herself while putting up her Christmas decorations, and decided to share this money-saving hack with her followers just in time for the holidays.
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Holding up a set of lights in her living room, she told followers: "Do not throw them away. We used to throw them away and then I found out that they have fuses."
And it's true! Most people don't realise that Christmas lights tend to have fuses built into the plug that can be replaced when the entire string goes out.
Of course, the first, most important step is to plug out the lights before you go about fixing them. It might seem obvious, but better safe than sorry.
Then, go to the plug of your lights and see if you can find a little sliding door with the word 'Open' and an arrow pointing down.
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Inside the door, you'll find the fuse.
Ideally, you'll have a few extra fuses still in the box or tied to the end of the lights. If you have them, all you need to do is replace the burnt out fuses with new ones, and you should be onto a winner!
"Take a bobby pin or whatever you have and push it...", the TikToker told her followers.
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"There's two fuses in there. Take them out and change the fuses."
Documenting the process, she continued: "So I just took this fuse out and it is black as f***."
After briefly cutting the camera to put the new fuse in, she explained: "Now you just close it, and this should come back on, so let's try it!
"Change the god damn fuse, please don't throw them away."
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For some, this fix might seem pretty obvious, but judging by the comment section, a lot of people were in the dark - literally - on this one.
"TikTok has taught me more in a couple years than school ever has", commented one viewer.
""I'm not telling my dad, cuz he will be so embarrassed", admitted a second.
"'Guess my family just be having extra money cause they always buying new lights", joked a third.
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One baffled follower wondered: "Did people not know this..."
And another asked: "Did ya'll just notice?"
But no one is here for a know-it-all.
Slamming the patronising comments, one viewer hit back: "The people commenting 'it's on the instructions' are just overachievers. Nobody is reading the instruction manual for Christmas lights."
Are you an instruction-manual-reading over-achiever? Or is this hack about to save your Christmas too?
Ali Condon