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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Cost of living crisis - Christmas lights ???

66 replies

diian · 18/10/2022 20:51

Will there be any up this year?

Martin Lewis is going on about blackouts and using less energy between 4-10pm. Will there be fewer nodding reindeers and houses lit up this Christmas?

34p to have an oven on for an hour. The Christmas turkey will cost about £1 to cook... phew! Or shall we just go round to MILs!?

OP posts:
Darbs76 · 18/10/2022 20:53

Just watching it too. I will still have my lights on! But might have them start half hour later and off half hour earlier. I am not even a massive Christmas fan but love how the window curtain lights make the house so much brighter for a month in the gloomy winter

Floralnomad · 18/10/2022 20:53

I hope if we are seriously going to end up with blackouts and need to preserve electric that people are sensible and just have indoor decorations .

InCheesusWeTrust · 18/10/2022 20:55

No one is taking my lights off me.
They cost pennies to run.

TheHauntedPencilCase · 18/10/2022 21:44

I have fairy lights up all year round but I use them rather than putting big lights on for just general wandering. I hope we don't get told to turn them off, they're really low energy and cost us very little for a few hours every night.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 18/10/2022 22:06

I use battery powered ones

Tipsyturvychocolatemonster · 18/10/2022 22:08

Keeping your lights in for six hours a day for a month will cost approx 2.50£

Lilyhatesjaz · 18/10/2022 22:36

I think it's the over the top outdoor lights that are the problem not the little ones on the tree. There are a few houses near here that cause traffic jams with people looking at the lights

Elieza · 18/10/2022 22:44

Sadly there are Christmas lights up near me already. Strings of them in the garden. Strings over the window. Flashing. Defo Christmas lights not Halloween or anything. And so it begins….

LynetteScavo · 18/10/2022 23:08

I have a crappy oven and im pretty sure it costs more than 34p an hour - I used to have an app showing my daily energy use and Christmas Day is by far my highest consumption, I think because of the massive turkey. I don't really so outside lights, but I will be getting a smaller turkey. The people near us who do lots of outside lights are people who can easily afford them, so I don't think there will be fewer around here.

Cheerfulcharlie · 18/10/2022 23:10

Elieza · 18/10/2022 22:44

Sadly there are Christmas lights up near me already. Strings of them in the garden. Strings over the window. Flashing. Defo Christmas lights not Halloween or anything. And so it begins….

Christmas lights or maybe lights for Diwali ?

Hiphopopotamus · 18/10/2022 23:13

Floralnomad · 18/10/2022 20:53

I hope if we are seriously going to end up with blackouts and need to preserve electric that people are sensible and just have indoor decorations .

Great to know what the next public blaming and shaming is going to be. Yeah we should definitely judge those with Christmas lights on and tut at their wastefulness. Never mine the politicians, the energy companies, the big corporations that have got us into these dire straits. FFS

MistyGreenAndBlue · 18/10/2022 23:17

I'll be putting mine up as usual. I dont do loads and they are all leds on a timer. Hardly a massive drain.

AlecTrevelyan006 · 18/10/2022 23:43

its heating, not lighting, that costs.

Hungrycaterpillarsmummy · 18/10/2022 23:46

Why would we have blackouts?

TheUsualChaos · 18/10/2022 23:54

It's not running the lights that will take much energy (well unless you have one of those displays that people do drive bys to see) but it's the ridiculous excessive consumerism every Christmas that is environmentally unsustainable. I don't care if people put up lights they already have, just stop buying new stuff every year. Some people change their Christmas theme each year. It's just insane.

MintJulia · 18/10/2022 23:58

I have plain, nonflashy icicle lifts on the gables .I will run them unless we' get regular power cuts in which case, I guess I'll have to switch them off. I'll try to find some solar chargeable ones.

AriettyHomily · 18/10/2022 23:58

My lights will be going up. It
Feels
Like a competitive race to the bottom to see who can have most miserable Christmas.

millerpie · 18/10/2022 23:59

LED Christmas lights cost hardly anything to run. I’ll have mine up inside and out I also won’t shame anyone doing the same, we need to be bashing the government not anyone else.

Blackheath95 · 19/10/2022 00:14

@Elieza they are probably Diwali lights. Lots of houses here (ok I am in Australia) put their lights up for it then leave them up until after Christmas. Two birds one stone etc.

TheHouseonHauntedHill · 19/10/2022 00:15

Led so yes they're going to be on.

Blocked · 19/10/2022 00:17

I really appreciate people who go to the effort of lighting up their front gardens for Christmas, it's lovely spotting them and pointing them out to the kids. One of life's small joys (unless they are flashing blue ones that make you panic)

HighlandPony · 19/10/2022 00:18

I dunno about where you are but it’s only the posh houses that have them anyway here

bridgetreilly · 19/10/2022 01:59

I dunno about where you are but it’s only the posh houses that have them anyway here

Round here, it’s definitely not the posh houses.

Liorae · 19/10/2022 02:05

bridgetreilly · 19/10/2022 01:59

I dunno about where you are but it’s only the posh houses that have them anyway here

Round here, it’s definitely not the posh houses.

🤣

SeatonCarew · 19/10/2022 03:26

Check the wattage of your lights, LED cost virtually nothing, older ones will cost a lot more to run. My beautiful gold wire cluster lights only take 4w, so I can run them for 250 hours for 1kWh of electricity.

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