Dollar Daze Holiday Edition- Will it Light?

Yes, it is time once again for another installment of DOLLAR DAZE! Yay!

And let me just say, love the sheer volumes of holiday themed crap at the Dollar Tree. Three whole aisles of it, plus a couple of end caps. Heaven!

I had to hold off on one of the holiday posts until after Christmas because it involved a gift for my loverly daughter. And since she has actually subscribed to my blog, I didn’t want to run the risk of her actually reading about one of her gifts before she actually opens it. A present from Dollar Tree? Oh mom, you really shouldn’t have. But it will be TOTALLY WORTH IT, once you see what it is. Seriously. It’s awesome. In a surprising and creepy sort of way.

Am I vaguebooking? Does it count as vaguebooking if it’s not on facebook? Do I care? Besides, vagueblogging doesn’t sound near as cool.

ANYWAY….

Back from the rabbit hole, today’s feature on Dollar Daze is the solar powered landscaping light!

Isn’t it classy? And festive?

I was fully expecting this to be an epic fail. A mere dollar for a landscaping light? I’ve seen full sets of 12 go for $50 or more. If this thing really worked, I could get classy outdoor lighting with a Christmas theme for the bargain basement price of $12 and save myself (cross out the zero and add a one to make ten, cross out the five and replace it with a four…subtract…use a calculator to check your work…) $38!

The first challenge actually came when I went to put the light into the ground. It is a landscaping light, after all, so one would assume that means putting the light in some land. Alas, this is Minnesota. Despite the unseasonably warm weather we had all autumn, by the time Dollar Tree stocked the Christmas lights, the ground was frozen solid.

This is me trying to stab the light into the frozen ice without breaking it. I quit while I was ahead.

I thought my experiment would have to go by the wayside. Thankfully, I had a planter with enough dead shrubbery to hold the light aloft.

Now, I was actually planning to write this post last week, but after I put the light out, we got about eight inches of snow. Which effectively covered the lamp. I figured I’d have to wait until March to proceed with the experiment, but thankfully it warmed up again and released my light from its snowy prison.

Amazingly, despite the gloomy gray days we’ve had as of late, there must be just enough solar power getting through because guess what?

Wha-what?!? Color me shocked and delighted!

It actually works. This is probably the most successful dollar store buy I’ve made to date. Heck, I may buy a bunch of these now and have the kids use THESE as their glow sticks at the lake next summer.

I don’t know how long they last, because I’ve usually gone to bed before the power goes out. Sometime overnight, I assume, because it’s generally dead by morning. I’m seriously impressed with the quality of these lights, and may just buy a bunch and paint the stems and use them to line the driveway come spring time. Not going to do it now though. Because I wouldn’t be able to get them into the frozen ground, and even if I did, the next time they come through to plow our driveway, I’m pretty sure they’d take out a bunch of them. Then again, at only $1 a piece, who cares? Go ahead and use your plow, Mr. Association Snow Plow Guy, with your fancy CAT. Break my classy landscaping lights. They were only a buck!

This Dollar Daze experiment as been an EPIC WIN!