Why don't more people leave their Christmas lights on to help mitigate the post-Christmas gloom?

[PositivelyGlowing]

I know that not everyone loves Christmas and, to be honest, I also don't like the gross commercialism. However, one thing that I do love is all of the Christmas lights in shop and house windows and elsewhere; they bring a lot of cheer to the dark, cold winter evenings that seem to drag on forever.

So why do most people still feel the need to switch off and even remove all Christmas lights as soon as 'twelfth night' has passed?

I mean by all means remove the Christmas-specific decorations (Santa figures, reindeer, wreaths, etc) but why not leave the LED lights on until Spring? LED lights use barely any power so it's not going to add much to electricity bills.

Spending just a few pennies on electricity can bring a little cheer to not only you but anyone else passing a house with a few strings of lights in the window, garden, etc.

And yes, I leave my festive lights on until Spring, as do a handful of others in my area. 😀

Just because it looks tardy to keep it up this long after Christmas.

They used to do that till mid Feb when we lived in Copenhagen- I loved it to be honest.

I'm aware most people thought that thread was crazy, but made me wish we did that in the UK!

I wouldn't want to see obviously Christmas lights, but white fairy lights in trees and strings of clear festoon bulbs are nice whilst it's still getting dark so early. I've noticed that many of the French ski resorts do this.

Because if they're up for ages, they don't feel very Christmas-y? Part of the excitement in the run up is that all the lights go up, and the darker nights are suddenly lit up.

Yes, this ^

All my lights, tree, decorations are still up here! They stay out for most of January usually. Anything Santa-ish has been packed away, but the other stuff I have is just as much for winter as Christmas so I feel no need to pack it away just yet.

Because Christmassy stuff doesn't feel special at Christmas if you have it there at other times.

I’ve got some warm white stars still up in the kitchen window.

Just prefer to keep Christmas stuff for Christmas, to make that time of the year special. We use other kinds of lighting all year round to cheer the place up in the dark, we just don't refer to it as Christmas lighting and it's not multicoloured.

We have fairy lights that are separate to the Christmas decorations and are part of the decor all year round, wrapped around a beam in the living room

I lean into the seasons. It’s winter, so winter decorations. My “Christmas” wreaths are still up. My holly and fairy lights display in the window will remain while the holly is alive. My lights outside on the fir trees will stay. All these stay until the end of February at least.

I don't have lights on the outside of my house over Christmas; I just have my tree and decorations up inside.

If you like outside Christmas lights and you prefer yours to stay up until spring that's fine - by all means leave yours up and I'm sure they look very pretty.

But it's weird to want other people to leave theirs up just to cheer you up.

YABU. There’s too much light pollution as it is. It’s terrible for wildlife.

I think I'd find it a bit much to have my house decorated for the rest of winter but I'd love it if maybe cafes or restaurants could stay decorated longer. Then I could get a twinkly lights fix now and then.

Mine too! I’ve taken all the decorations off, except for the (white) lights. It will stay up until Imbolc/Candlemas.

As the tree is freshly cut in December, it will last until then with no problem.

I can’t tell you the absolute cheer that this brings me..

My outside lights are on still. Multicoloured and not flashing.

I agree and ours are still up.
In nordic countries apparently they do.

I can't understand it either and the royals keep theirs up (the queen did) till candlemas which makes sense to me.

I feel it looks a bit like I haven’t got my shit together, like I was too lazy to take the decs down!
Since this is probably true I don’t want to reinforce the stereotype too far. I usually reintroduce some pink ones for valentines .
I do keep a few white ones outside but I like things to feel spangly and clean in early Spring.

Not everyone feels gloom after Christmas.

My tree lights are all tiny battery-powered ones, some coloured, some different whites - I've wrapped them up neatly and put them in a big pyrex bowl on a table, where they can cheer me up until the batteries run down.

The nativity scene lights will stay up until Candlemas.

Ugh, please no. Mid January is too long, but anything after that would irritate me.

I do! I suffer from SAD and the lights really help me at Christmas, so I've still got a string on the fence outside and have left the lights on the Christmas tree for the time being (though I've stripped the baubles off). It's a real tree, wasn't cheap and I'm still enjoying the lights, so I'm keeping them going until it starts to drop too many needles. My mum, who has Alzheimer's and lives with us, is also enjoying looking at them (also has SAD).

The outside lights (not particularly Christmassy and not in a place where they could annoy passers-by especially as they're not those shite flashing ones) will stay until the clocks go forward.

If you mean outside lights, or lights that can be seen outside, I would never have them up because they just add to the already horrible levels of light pollution. Its supposed to be dark - it's January! By all means illuminate the inside of your house how you want, but we don't need to light up the outside any more than we already have, especially in rural areas.

I've also left my tree up with just the coloured lights left on.
No-one can see it from outside so it's just my little glowing treat.

I agree with a previous poster that I'm going to keep them on till Candlemas - Feb 2nd
That's a lovely idea. I love the tree lights so much.

Speak for yourself - some of us find a bit of outdoor lighting helpful. We're not talking about flashing Santas or anything.

We've kept ours up this year! Christmas was awful (norovirus) so the tree stayed up until last weekend too. Warm golden slightly twinkling cluster lights look so lovely to come home to in these darker afternoons and evenings.