Personally, I think a pre-lit Christmas tree is one of the best things I've ever spent my money on. I LOVE that tree. The lights are far, far more evenly spaced than I ever have the patience to do. It looks so much better.

As far as us being lazier now, I don't think that's necesarily true all the time.

We used to be a agricultural society. Dad worked the family farm, and mom raised the kids, cooked, etc. Neither parent worked outside the home. There was practically NO spending money, or cash or any kind, but there was a lot of time. Time to make homemade bread, plant a garden, etc. Those kind of time consuming chores WERE the woman's job, all day long.

Then came the industrial revolution, and dad went to work in a factory. He now had much less time at home, but mom still stayed home and worked in the house. They had a little more spending money, but not much, and mom still had a lot of time. So they might buy a gas oven instead of a coal stove, and a vacuum cleaner instead of a rug beater ... but there was probably still homemade bread.

Fast forward to now ... both parents work full-time outside the home. There is a LOT of disposable income, relative to any time before this. But there is practically no time. So, because mom now works away from home, her income basically pays someone else to bake the bread ... and bun the hotdogs, I suppose.

I was reading about this somewhere, and it was noted that even the expressions used relative to time have changed. It used to be said that one was "killing time" ... now it said that we are "spending time." Time has become the new scarce commodity, in lieu of money. Interesting.