Rewiring a Vintage NOMA Christmas Tree Star

[Barb]

Hi everyone,

For some time I have been wanting a vintage electric star topper for our family Christmas tree. I found one in it's original box at an antique show last week. I was really happy to find the star, but afraid of the original wiring and bulbs used in the star. I have heard some horror stories about vintage electrics and the danger of fire and wanted nothing to do with it. I brought the star to a local hardware store to see about having it rewired. One issue was that the green sockets holding the bulbs were made of Bakelite, and the brass part of the socket where you would solder new wires could not be removed from the Bakelite without cutting the rim, removing the brass to resolder and then gluing the rim back on. (Thanks to Paul Race for detailed instructions on the process.) My hardware store guy was not willing to go through all that and although I was, I am not comfortable with soldering and wiring.

Another attempted solution was to buy a new strand of C7 ceramic bulbs and use them to light the star. The plastic green socket fit well into the star but the distance between sockets meant that there was too much wire to stuff into the center of the star, and also meant I had a long strand of unused bulbs that would hang down from the star.

I searched YouTube for a way to shorten the new strand of C7 bulbs, and ran into this fantastic video with instructions to make your own customized light strings. There are no special skills required, no need to splice wires, no electrical tape and best of all, no scary old wiring to burn your house down! The video is long but very informative, and incredibly easy to follow. I ordered the supplies and within about half an hour I had my vintage star lit up and looking great!!

Here's a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7AUzXNFkr4

And some pix of my star!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Barb

[maria]

Thank you for sharing this info and congratulations on your find.

[Lynn]

It's a beauty!! Nicely done!!

[Howard]

Barb…

Two words…”Well done”…and I know you feel much better regarding the electrical safety issue…

thanks for the link to video…gives me a few ideas to explore about village lighting…too late for this year…maybe next year…easy to hide white sockets, white wire and white plug…spaced the way I want…

Howard…