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. 😀

There was a gradual removing lights here. I liked that some stayed up well into January when you could see things changing light wise at night.

Hi

First World problem

We take our coloured ones down, but the white ones on a tree outside are 'winter lights' and stay up until Feb half term.

Well yes, obviously I am speaking for myself, this is a forum, that's what it's for! But there's tonnes of research on light pollution adversely affecting wildlife. There are situations where the benefit outweighs the risk, but I don't think Christmas lights staying up is one of those situations.

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/light-pollution.html

https://www.rhs.org.uk/wildlife/garden-lighting-effects-on-wildlife

https://www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/news/guest-blog-how-light-pollution-impacts-wildlife

I'm aware of how light pollution affects wildlife, but a string of warm white fairylights at the front underneath the streetlights isn't going to make any difference.

But every house having strings of fairylights in a rural setting where there are no streetlights might... hence my comment on it being especially important in rural areas.

I've kept the white lights wound around the tree in the front garden. All the coloured lights and light up reindeer type stuff went away, but it makes me happy to get home from work and see twinkly lights so I'm keeping the white ones up until the end of the month. I'll have to take them off then because I don't want them to interfere with the spring growth.

Fair enough re wildlife, hadn't considered it from that angle. We're not in a rural area ourselves.

I went for a long walk today and thought the same, one house still had lights flashing

its February 5th for the end of advent in the old calendar

would be nice to off set the gloom

i wish people didn’t want to rush Xmas

I still have my white fairy lights up as they are so pretty. We have white fairy lights under the Pegola all year around too.
I am still using my Christmas crockery and the Nativity is still up, I will put them away the first week of February.

I prefer log fire and candles this time of year for cheerful, cosy lighting.
I like to keep the Xmas decorations special for Christmas. They are too colourful for January.

Mine are indoors.

Ours were down before the end of 2024.

Fab! 🙂 As i said in my first post, by all means illuminate the inside of your house how you want! It's the outside that bothers me!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5244508-is-anyone-planning-on-wintering?reply=141138399

I absolutely love Christmas and love to see Christ lights. But as soon as Christmas is over I find seeing lights and decorations really quite depressing; leaving or seeing them up late doesn’t bring me cheer at all.

We keep our outdoor ones up year round - we started doing it to boost the mood during lockdown but honestly they look lovely and give the house + garden a nice glow, even during summer for garden parties etc. They aren’t obnoxious flashy, brightly coloured ones though - just warm LEDs.

I take down the Christmas decorations and the tree lights by the 6th January, but I have coloured lights around my back door that are there year round. I plug them in on all the holidays. They'll next be plugged in for Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras, then Easter, etc.

DD has white fairy lights adorning her room year round. They're not visible from the street.

Lots of people leave lights in trees or front porches where I live, and like most people here, I light lamps in the evening and never draw curtains or blinds (US).

I don’t like seeing Christmas lights up too early either - to me they’re a midwinter thing, an expression of human defiance in the deepest darkness. Once I can feel the stretch in the evenings again I don’t ‘need’ twinkly lights. I might choose a different date to take them down if I lived further north.