The 15 watt Tannenbaum

Okay okay I'm now an LED geek. The invention of the white LED is one of the most significant breakthroughs in recent years, and I can't get enough of them.

Our tree does not skimp on lights. (It's overkill.) I have five strings of LEDs on there (250 lights total) and it's all backlit by a color-changing LED lamp. But all of them together only use the power of 1.5 traditional bathroom incandescent night lights.

If I had used regular incandescent lights instead of LEDs, it would burn over 160 watts to do the same job as the LEDs do on 15 watts. It's a 10 to 1 efficiency leap.

This is the biggest innovation since the electric light replaced the candle on trees. The safety must have improved as well, these LEDs are COOL to the touch even after being on for hours.