None of us wanted to do it, but we all wanted a lit tree for Christmas, so it had to be done. We stripped down the entire tree and started all over with new, better-quality lights from Target. They are still blue, so it may not look very different from the first set of lights, but these ones stay lit (knock-on-wood).
I returned the cheap trash to Walmart. The girl at the desk said they usually will get 1 in 5 boxes returned as defective on those lights. That is pretty crappy quality control in my mind.
The new lights have a cool intensity that I wasn't sure I liked at first, but as I sat next to the tree last night for the first time, I found myself enjoying how the color really brought out the white of the my grandmother's beautiful lace snowflake tatting designs.
Two other things I like about our new lights are that the LED bulbs should help keep our electric bill down and that the brightness of the bulbs make the lights clearly visible even during the day.
Merry Christmas!