well, by removing some lights, you could actually be making the others brighter. i have a few strands that if you remove more than 1-2 lights, the strand gets real bright! light strands are series-parallel circuits that are setup so that each bulb basically gets 1.5 to2.5 volts across it, depending on the exact setup of the strand. by removing bulbs, you change the ciruit resistance, and up the voltage to each bulb. as this happens, the bulb gets brighter and gives off more heat. remove enough and the circuit is broken completely on most stradns and you get no light. also, you say unscrewing the bulbs, so i take it this is not the mini lights but the older 4 or 9 watt screw in bulbs. they will produce much more heat than the smaller bulbs. as configured from the manufacturer, the bulbs should be safe. of course we all know that chinese crap may not be, but if the bulbs run cooler with all bulbs in, then i would leave it alone.

Funny you should post this. I just sent them an e-mail. We bought a Tree Classics tree three or four years ago because we had heard so many good things about them. Spent a lot of money, but we felt confident. The tree came, and it was lovely. It also came with a great storage bag. So, rather than pack it away and store it in the crawl space, we left it standing, pulled the bag up around it, and found a safe corner for it in the laundry room. Imagine our dismay the next Christmas when we unzipped the tree bag, and plugged in the tree. Fully 25% of the lights didn't work. We followed the troubleshooting guidelines, checked connections and lights, and nothing. When I checked on the website, they noted that they did not warranty the light bulbs, and so we would have to order bulbs from them to replace ours. I wrote to them, but because it was within their Christmas window, they did not respond - ever. The tree that we paid hundreds of dollars for stands in the laundry room. We use a little tabletop tree, because we can't afford to spend more money on a big tree and lights, etc.That also means that we don't get to put out the dozens of ornaments that we have collected over the last 26 years, including the ones the kids made in school. Yesterday, I got an e-mail from the company, talking about how the old company went bankrupt, and they have taken over the business, improved everything, and now have a 2 year guarantee on lights. And would I like to order a tree and get 10% off? Needless to say, I wrote them and related this story. Let's see what kind of response it gets me. Anyone taking bets on this?

Really enjoyed looking @ everyone's lovely trees! Sorry a bit late, but here's ours. After years of elaborate real trees decorated w/ traditional ornaments, garlands, lights & candy, once our kids were grown, I got a small vintage aluminum tree on eBay & have enjoyed its convenience & simplicity ever since. No lights, no topper, no watering - takes me about 1/2 hour to complete... Here it is the first year we had it - 2007. Only year w/ icicles, after I learned (the hard way) that my cat liked to eat them... & here's a tree @ work - all decorations by kids in my arts & crafts classes... Merry Christmas to everyone!

Putting the trunk on an angle wouldn't change the crotch angle. The weight of the canopy is less than the stress wind would cause. Get a cfl and put it on the stem where you want growth. Force it to bud out. Make the tree do what you want it to. Start now and get the buds to break before spring so by next fall you will have a mostly balanced tree. Also don't let any more growth happen on the current canopy. Rub off all new branches as they grow. Only let the tree grow from the bare stem.