FWIW: I don't know how much optical fiber costs these days, but Walmart has a small 3' tree for about $12 with lots of it. Of course, there's also a base with a light, and color rotator.

I have tossed about doing a Christmas themed table.. This is my favorite time of year and still have great memories of piling in the old station wagon in my PJ's while dad cruised around town to let us see the houses al lit up. I've yet to check out trees to see how much fiber optic cable can be salvaged from the "kit bashing" of one of these. There is a seller on ebay who sells clear and colored optic cable in lots.. While the tree would yield a bunch, I think the colored fiber optic would be easier to work with.

Picture this (mentally).. Taking a model house. scale irrelevant.. and gluing the optic cable to the underside of the roof, just beyond flush with the edge, all the way around. Bundle all the loose ends and butt them up to an LED (run cooler than light bulbs) and cover the whole sha-bang with shrink tubing and heat til snug. Then assemble the roof to the house. What is cool about this is you can wire all your "xmas lights" together and only light them when wanted. Other variations can include bringing the optics out the front of the structure to light shrubs, and single yellow optic for the old candle in the window look.

I have tried tossing around ways to light individual trees, but so far the concept hasn't gone past the basic mental mess of fiber optic feeding in from behind the tree and wouldn't look right from it's bad side. Since my table is still in the mostly bare white plaster cloth stage, I decided to do some silly Christmas decorations on it. Not bad for a shoestring budget.. but I had some problems with the pipe cleaners shedding on the slotcar track so I had to ditch the idea. It was good for a holiday e greeting though..

http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp251/slotcarman12078/45c222ee.jpg

Anyway, that's my input.. Any other thoughts??

Joe

I'd get jacketed fiber optic cable. You can split or remove the jacket to release the individual strands and position the ends where you want xmas "light bulbs."

The ends can be "mushroomed" with heat and then a clear-drying solution of elmer's white glue colored with food coloring dabbed on the end. The individual strands may need to be painted black (or whatever) to hide them and avoid light-leakage before the mushroomed ends.

The light source can be a single white LED.

here's a good site for possibilities. Fiber Optic Store. (http://www.thefiberopticstore.com/)

an example of jacketed fiber optic cable is here (http://www.thefiberopticstore.com/purchase/endglowcable.htm).

Sounds like a cool idea!