Thanksgiving is now a pleasant memory, so it's time to talk about Christmas lights.

When you bring your lights out of storage, take a few minutes to give them the once-over.

"Inspect them for frayed wires or cracked sockets," said John Drengenberg is with Underwriters Laboratories. "If you have any of these problems it's a good idea just to throw the light string away and buy a new UL listed light string."

Drengenberg says be careful how you hang your house lights.

"Be sure not to use metal nails or staples, because that could damage the insulation and cause severe shock hazard or even a fire."

Hooks are the safe way to go. Underwriters Laboratories recommends that you don't leave outdoor lights up for more than 90 days.

If you're in the market for new lights, think LED. They are hard to break, last an incredibly long time -- up to 20 years of continuous use -- and they're energy efficient.

The light emitting diodes don't have a filament like traditional bulbs, so they don't burn out. And they don't get hot, so they're much safer to use if you have kids around.

They use a 1/10th the energy of mini-lights and 1/100th the energy of C-7 bulbs!

It's a technology that has been around for a while, but until recently there were few products that used LEDs in Christmas lights at a price that compared with traditional strands. That's changed, though. Now major retailers carry LED Christmas lights in a variety of styles and colors and fake Christmas trees lit with LEDs.

"The thing about Christmas lights is that LED lights have finally come of age," said Lawrence Comras, chief executive and president of GreenHome.com, a retailer of environmentally friendly products. "They make them in an amazing array of colors, styles and sizes ... They finally got the price down, so they are now very affordable."

Still, LEDs can be more expensive than conventional lights. For example, Christmaslightsetc.com sells a strand of 100 conventional lights for $9.50 and a smaller strand of 70 LEDs for $19.25.

Artificial Christmas trees also come outfitted with LEDs, but buyers may pay a premium there, too. Walmart.com sells a 7-foot Christmas tree strung with conventional bulbs for $79.88 online and advertises the same size tree lit with LEDs for $92.84.

There are distinct advantages to LEDs, though, according to a report by the Iowa Energy Center, an energy efficiency group.

LEDs can be used indoors and outdoors, same as traditional lights, but they use just a fraction of the energy that conventional bulbs consume. And LEDs use plastic lenses, instead of glass and filaments, and are virtually unbreakable. Meaning they also could prevent one of the season's inevitable headaches: the search for that one faulty light that blows out the whole strand. Unlike incandescents, if a single LED goes out, it doesn't affect the others. But LEDs are much less likely to burn out: They can last about 200,000 hours while conventional bulbs last 1,000 to 2,000 hours.

While they do use much less power, LED manufacturers say to only put 3 strings of lights together. If you combine LEDs with regular bulbs, you could blow a fuse.

But if you use only led lights, and you're sure they're led lights, you can safely connect up to 20 strings end-to-end. Just remember, they all have to be LED bulbs. Underwriter's Labs tell me a label change is being considered.

These advantages can come at an added cost, however.

ConsumerReports.org compared strands of LED and conventional Christmas lights and declared the price difference a toss-up, depending on the length of the strands. The study concluded you might not realize any savings if payback takes more than three 90-day seasons, the industry's standard for how long a household may use the lights.

Consumer Reports' testers concluded that generally LEDs "can be a bit more expensive than incandescents," but favored them overall. LEDs won two of the other three criteria involved in the review, energy use and durability; incandescents won on brightness.

"LEDs are better for the environment; run much cooler, reducing fire risk; should last longer; and could save money eventually," according to the report. "But it's apt to take more than one holiday season for the savings to kick in."

For More Information:

Keep That Holiday Cheer Away from Fires, Falls, or Shocks

Keep holiday decorating safety in mind this holiday season

Holiday Lighting

Holiday Lights: LED & Fiber Optics

Christmas Tree Fires

Holiday Decoration Safety Tips