By The gadget that saved Christmas. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
I thought I could hold out until Friday, but as I stared at my Christmas tree’s unlit midriff, I realized that was too long to wait.
I’d ordered a set of spare incandescent bulbs for my Christmas tree on Amazon, but the delivery was days away and the problem was staring me in the face. The more I thought about it, the trouble didn’t seem to be a single bulb, anyway. Half the strand on the middle section of the pre-lit tree was dark, and the internet seemed to agree that one burnt-out bulb shouldn’t bring down the whole string.
I opened Amazon and typed “Christmas tree light voltage checker” into the search bar. Predictably, my search returned a sea of same-looking products made by companies with alphabet-soup names. I clicked on…