The box of lights comes out of the garage the same weekend every year. Before any of it goes up, give the gear ten minutes on the driveway.
Check every strand before it hangs. Cracked insulation, brittle wire, broken or missing bulbs, a plug that feels loose — the set sat in a cold garage for eleven months. Federal safety guidance on holiday decorations says the same thing every year: inspect them, and replace damaged strands instead of repairing them.
Outdoor lights and cords need to be rated for outdoor use. The most common mistake is an indoor extension cord doing an outdoor job. Indoor cords aren't built for UV or standing water; the insulation breaks down faster than you'd expect. If the cord came with a lamp or a phone charger, it's indoor. Check the jacket or the packaging for the outdoor rating.
Plug into a GFCI-protected outlet. Outdoor receptacles should already have GFCI protection — if yours doesn't, that's worth fixing before the season, not during it. Don't run the cord in through a window or door to reach an indoor outlet. A pinched cord is damaged insulation, and damaged insulation is a heat risk.
Keep the connections dry. Cord-to-cord joints sitting in a puddle or buried in wet leaves are asking for a tripped GFCI at best. Keep joints off the ground — the small weatherproof connection boxes sold for exactly this cost a few dollars.
Watch the total load. One strand of LEDs draws almost nothing. Ten strands, two inflatables, and a projector on the same circuit is a different story. If the breaker trips every time the display switches on, the display is too much for that circuit. The answer is fewer things on it, not a bigger breaker.
Put it on a timer. Lights burning all night wear out faster and cost more to run, and a timer means nobody is walking outside at midnight in the rain to unplug everything.
When to call us: if there's no outdoor outlet where the display needs to go, adding one is our work. If the same outlet trips every time it rains once the lights are up, that's a GFCI problem wearing a holiday costume — same diagnosis as any other outdoor trip.
Triple Tree Electric: 1-(360) 470-3782, sales@tripletreeelectric.com. We serve Aberdeen, Hoquiam, and all of Grays Harbor County, plus Thurston and Mason Counties.