The Christmas shopping season has begun early this year in most stores, and that can especially be seen in a lot of home improvement stores. Home improvement stores are usually aiming for two holiday markets: the person shopping for that perfect holiday gift as well as the homeowner who is looking for new decorations to be used before the holiday. A lot of the larger hardware stores go all out during the holiday season, carrying a wider selection of lights and electric Christmas decorations than most other retail stores.

The Home Depot is offering $3 towards the purchase of LED Christmas lights when you trade in your old Christmas light strings.

The Home Depot is taking the buying of Christmas lights one step further this year: they’re encouraging people to turn in their old incandescent holiday Christmas lights in return for a rebate worth $3 off the purchase of new energy-saving LED Christmas lights. Your old Christmas lights don’t even have to work! They offer has a maximum limit of five strands of lights, which means you can save up to $15 if you’re going to buy LED Christmas lights this year from The Home Depot.

The Home Depot’s Christmas Light Trade-In offer is being advertised as a “green” and environmentally friendly gesture, but truth behind that claim may be arguable. Last year we did an comparison of LED Christmas lights to see if they really could save you money and energy. Some of the things we found:

LED Christmas lights are still much more expensive than regular incandescent Christmas lights. Saving $3 per strand of lights is good, but the LED lights will almost definitely still be more expensive than regular Christmas lights if you compare cord length or even number of bulbs to light sources per strand.

LED Christmas lights do use much less energy and they are much less expensive to run through a holiday season. But you probably need to use those LED lights for lots of seasons to even begin to get back the money you initially spent in purchasing them. Unless energy prices skyrocket in the next few years your LED Christmas lights will still have a “higher cost of ownership” when you consider energy cost as well as purchase price.

LED Christmas lights are made of plastic and all those old Christmas lights you turn in are just going to end up in a landfill. Even those new LED lights will one day end up in a landfill, so the more Christmas lights you buy, the more trash you’re generating (that can be said about most things, though).

LED Christmas light are not as bright as regular incandescent Christmas lights. This lack of brightness becomes more of an issue when you’re buying outdoor LED Christmas lights as opposed to indoor LED Christmas lights. Some people think LED lights have a “cold” feeling with no real twinkle.

Most LED Christmas lights do flicker. Most people don’t notice this, but some viewers have sensitive eyes which can detect a faint flicker in most LED Christmas lights. You can get “flicker free” professional LED Christmas lights or use a “rectifier” in the electrical line, but they are a little more expensive and they are a little less energy efficient. There aren’t many places that you can find professional, flicker-free LED Christmas lights yet, but Christmas Lights Etc has a wide variety available online.

If you’re going to use your Christmas lights for home decor all year long, then it’s definitely a good idea to look into professional grade lighting just for durability and safety.

If you have a new home and need to buy some Christmas lights for the first time, then by all means investigate what LED Christmas lights have to offer and whether or not they’re to your liking. But if you’re happy with your current incandescent Christmas lights and they’re all in good repair, then you might want to keep using them for while. You’ll save yourself some money and keep a few strands of Christmas lights out of the landfill!