Tis the season where Minnesotans are retrieving their tangled strings of holiday lights from garages, basements, and crawl spaces. It’s a great time to make good choices about the lights you use and the best disposal options for your old, nonworking, or unwanted strings.

Safety first. Inspect your old lights for broken bulbs and bare, cracked or frayed wires. Find easy fixes like tightening loose connections and replacing blown fuses.

Recycle your Holidays™ collection sites for holiday lights are popping up around the state, making recycling convenient for consumers and reclaiming valuable copper. Sponsors hope to collect 50,000 pounds of old lights this year, with free drop-offs in the Twin Cities, Duluth, Ely, Mankato, Pine City, and St. Cloud.

Choose LEDs to save money in the long term. These "light-emitting diodes" use far less energy, with plastic bulbs that are durable and burn longer. In the popular C9 size, a 50-foot string of LEDs would use just 14¢ over 300 hours, compared to $11 for incandescents! (Consumer Reports)

Make good choices in how you hang and use your lights. Show off your eco-sensibilities as part of your display of holiday cheer.

• Hang lights using appropriate hooks or clips instead of nails and staples.
• Connect no more than 3 standard strings in a series for safe electrical load on the wires.
• Use a timer to turn off your nighttime display during the “holi-days.”