The Brilliant Dollar Tree Hack That'll Amp Up Your Pre-Lit Christmas Tree

Pre-lit artificial Christmas trees can be a great way to avoid the yearly battle with tangled string lights. They look fabulous right out of the box, saving you precious hours of getting just the right placement. Most trees, however, come with standard-issue white twinkle lights, which can be beautiful but may leave you looking for some variety, particularly if you love the look of larger lights. TikTok user @creativemom_blog may have the solution for getting exactly the look you want without adding pricey, larger lights. It's as close as the Dollar Tree, where you can find ordinary ping pong balls. When placed over the light bulb, they'll instantly turn a small Christmas light into a stylish one.

This approach is much cheaper than buying additional lights to add to an already lit tree, which can make your tree look cluttered with lights and wires. In addition, you can mix smaller and larger lights without having to invest in more strands or more custom and expensive pre-lit varieties of trees like this luxe one from Target. You can also customize the ping pong balls to fit your holiday aesthetic.

White ping pong balls are available from Dollar Tree in packs of six, which means it's easy to buy as many as you need. Simply cut a criss-cross hole in each ball and place the opening around the existing light bulb. While most holiday lights don't get hot to the touch or produce a fire hazard, make sure to check the ping pong balls regularly for evidence of overheating or melting, particularly if you worry about the fire dangers of a real tree.  

To add some sparkle to your ping ball balls, add a coat of Elmer's glue or Mod Podge, then tip the ball in glitter (you can also use spray glitter.) To get the look of large colored lights, use a single coat of spray paint in red, green, gold, or another color. You can also buy ping pong balls in multi-colored packs from Amazon. Add spray snow to make the globes look like tiny snowballs for a fun variation. This approach is great to use on pre-lit garlands or wreaths and outdoor trees, as well as a way to elevate any ordinary strand of holiday lights anywhere in your home.