Leaving Christmas tree lights on

[Hahaha88]

Does anyone leave the Christmas tree lights on? I've always turned them off if I'm popping out and again at bedtime. But I visited a friend who had gone out for a couple of hours and left them on and if made me wonder if I'm over thinking things making sure they are off whenever I'm not in

I like to have them on when we get up Xmas morning and I've been known to run down first thing and switch them on before everyone else comes down, but now I'm wondering if I could just leave them on? Has there actually been fires from modern Xmas lights being left on??

Yabu don't leave them on

Yanbu go ahead leave them on

Manufacturers instructions say not to leave them on when unattended, so I don't.

The tree lights will be on if there is someone at home but would always be switched off if everyone is out during the day. At night, whoever is last up to bed will switch them off. I worry too much about a fire.

No, don't leave them on. I'm usually a laid back and not a very panicky person, but these lights do catch fire very quickly and it's dangerous to leave them on. My friend's lights did just that. The room was in flames in seconds. Luckily, no one was hurt (they weren't in), but everything they had was gone.

I know I'm probably unreasonable and silly, but.. I like taking long baths when my DD goes to bed (she's not a baby, she's 7, no risk in leaving her in bed). There's just two of us in the house. So when I go to have a bath, and she's sleeping - I switch the Christmas lights off. Just in case. Probably stupid and paranoid, but it's a bit 'better be safe than sorry' for me, I guess.

I'm surprised how many people have plug in lights. We have battery ones that have a built in timer. They come on at 4 and turn off at 10pm. There is never usually no one here during that time.

I honestly never knew they could catch on fire . (don't have a tree though)

I think my aunt does turn them off though.

I am surprised how many people have plug in lights

Why on earth would that surprise you?

It was always drummed into me that the lights go off in you're leaving them unattended for any length of time. Not worth risking burning the house down for no reason.

Mains ones (inside) get switched off. Battery ones in garden are on a timer, so come on at 4pm and go off at midnight.

Surely it's more eco friendly to have mains operated lights rather than using lots of batteries? I have 4 window silhouettes, 2 sets of icicles on the gutter and a set of lights each on the indoor and outdoor trees. That would be an awful lot of batteries.

LEDs yes I have left on a timer. And a timer switch on the wall.

Glass bulb lights? Fuck to the FUCK NO. Especially on a real tree. Fire Hazard 101 there. Remember the young family that died last christmas cos their tree caught fire?

We always turn ours off.

I leave mine on 24/7 until they come down again in the new year. I made sure they’re all LEDs so don’t use to much energy.

Not worth the risk IMHO, I always turn ours off. I wonder if home insurance would pay out of Xmas lights were the cause of a fire, while you were out?

I leave mine on because they're LED. Old style ones, never!

We have smart plugs so all the Christmas lights including trees go on at 3pm and off at 11:30 .
I can turn the tree lights on via my phone so can do that from my bed Christmas morning.
I do leave the lights on when we go out though which isn’t the smartest

Oh .. mine are all led so feel abit better now

I'm surprised people still use mains ones because 1) of the inconvenience re plug sockets and trailing wires, and 2) the safety aspect. Whilst LEDs are safer than old fashioned lights, battery ones are safer still.

My 300 LED set puts out a current of 0.066A. When I looked at a similar mains operated set on Amazon just now, they put out a current of around 0.2A. Whilst many mains lights are lowish voltage, the current is still high. Whereas batteries tend to be low voltage and low current. For context, 0.1-0.2A is considered lethal. Being hooked up to any mains grid also means there is more risk of your lights dramatically going 'bang' than with a battery equivalent.

I use rechargeable batteries in mine. They say they can last 1200 charges and they don't get recharged very often to be honest. My 300 run off 4 x AA batteries and my 600 off 3 x D batteries. I can't say I notice them to be lacking in brightness either.

Why would you risk it?

So your recharge your batteries with the plug in charger but won’t have plug in lights? Seems like an over complicated way of doing it.

LED lights don't get hot so they are very very unlikely to cause a fire. You should check the transformer though. If it heats up, turning off would be wise.

Don't normally leave Christmas lights on, but our dog weed under our Christmas tree the first few nights it was up, but hasn't when we've left the lights on! (Open plan downstairs so can't put him in different room!).

Their LED so as another poster said, don't get hot & make sure I turn them off for few hours in daytime

Always turn them off when out/at night yes.

I really don't understand why you'd leave them on tbh - waste of energy if nothing else. LED or otherwise 🙄

I always switch ours off. All of ours are battery operated because our stupid house has next to no plug sockets and I don't want trailing wires everywhere so I switch them off to save having to replace the batteries; I still wouldn't leave them on if they were mains powered though due to the fire risk.

Turn them off as you would do other lights.