I have had a bit of a problem with my artificial Christmas tree lights this year.

The bottom third didn’t come on.

While I always add more lights to the tree than it comes with, you might think this would be no big deal. But it was.

You see, the original tiny rice lights the tree came with were wrapped around each individual branch and I wanted the bottom of the tree to match the top of the tree.

However, I knew I did not have the time or patience to follow suit.

So I tried out some lights I had bought earlier in the season to see how they looked.

The lights were the same size; they were just in clusters of three. When I tried them out on the tree I decided that would solve my problem.

Only thing was, I did not have enough.

So I went to Amazon. Found some very similar and placed my order.

Now, the only glitch I had was they would not be here until Dec. 8.

Later that same evening, when I was in distress — I mean my tree was in distress — my daughter and I went to Home Depot to browse through the Christmas décor. While there I noticed. They, too, had the tiny lights. They were not in clusters, but I bought them anyway as my backup plan if something were to happen with my order.

As days went by, I was constantly tracking my lights in hopes they would arrive early. They didn’t.

But finally, on the day they were slated to arrive, UPS dropped them off, and now I was ready to roll.

As I began to add the lights to the tree, I realized I had not considered all the logistics and now I would have too many lights on the bottom third of my tree.

My frustrations began to mount once again.

So, I decided to break open one of the packages of lights I had bought at Home Depot and began the arduous task of wrapping all the branches.

After I was done, I asked hubby to take a look and he quickly pointed out there were still more lights on the top two-thirds of the tree.

Spacing on the lights from Home Depot was not the same.

I threw up my hands, grabbed the lights from Amazon and decided what the heck; the bottom of my tree was going to be lit up.

And it is, even more so now after I added the colored lights.

My Christmas tree light dilemma reminded me of poor old Clark Griswold from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”

He, too, had a problem with his Christmas lights. Like mine, though, they finally got fixed and all was good.

There is just something about Christmas lights that get you in the spirit.

And if anyone is in need of a little spirit, drive down Washington Street at night.

The park is aglow; stores have Christmas lights in their windows. Folks who live downtown have lights strung and the trunks of the trees along the main thoroughfare are wrapped in lights that are bright and colorful.

It just looks magical.