Quality Lights or Bunk Timer

Since we have moved to a house, I had no excuse not to put up Christmas decorations outside. On the eaves, I placed white corded, clear icicles lights and I also bought an eight foot inflatable snowman for my son. Unfortunately yesterday, Frosty, as he is affectionately known, stopped working along with 3 strands of lights. I was slightly frustrated. After some investigative work, I concluded that the fuses in the plugs of both had blown out. Why? It could only be an electrical surge. How? The bunk timer that senses when it gets dark and automatically turns on the lights is the only answer!

So am I now questioning and frustrated about the quality of Christmas lights or the bad timer that is blowing out the fuses? BOTH. Why can no one develop a timer (specifically for Christmas lights) that doesn't cause a surge that blows fuses in the lights? I'm no electrical engineer, but it seems like it would be relatively simple. Now that I think about it, it might be a conspiracy! The next question, is why do they even put those goofy little fuses in the plugs any way? Back in my day, there were no fuses and if there was an electrical surge it blew out a GLASS light bulb sending shards of sharp colored glass flying. Those were the days of hard core Christmas festivities. I'm getting fed up with these wimpy little technological innovations that make you spend hours repairing a little fuse or buying all new flawed stuff.
Fa La La La La, La La La La!