As far as burning yourself, the blue bulbs were the real bastards.
We use LED bulbs in the tree for reliability and long life now, but they flicker when you move your eye past them, and I don't like that. Might switch back to little incandescents some day.
We still get real trees every year. Nothing makes the house smell better. Well, maybe the cookie baking.
You can still buy bubble lights, thank goodness.