I had an idea, actually several years ago, about somehow putting a battery tealight inside an ornament globe. Thought and thought about it but just couldn't get past a couple issues. Size for one thing, tea lights are just too big. How to turn it off or on? How to change the batteries? At the time I was thinking about some kind of pierced design but eventually just forgot about it.

A few days ago my lovely bride showed me some little lights she had purchased. Balloon lights. Had never heard of them but instantly my idea was reborn.

They are about 1/2" diameter or just larger. They are one and done and turn on by removing a strip of paper. They will actually produce light for about 3 days but get dimmer as time passes. No matter, 50 of them are about 7 bucks on Amazon.

So, I set to work figuring out how use them, did some drawing in freecad, printed, revised, printed, drew some more and printed some. more Finally came up with a method for holding the lights in place and an easy way to attach and remove the bottom finial to insert a new light.

I fashioned a simple twist lock, male and female and there is a cavity for light in the male half of the connection.

Ornament with the "lights" off

Here it is with the lights on. Still figuring the nuances of this idea but pretty happy with the results so far. Nice thing is, they don't really take much longer than a regular ornament.

Very clever, I love it.