Christmas lights etiquette

[RandyMandyy]

Slightly pointless thread and a sign that I probably need to do more interesting things on a Saturday night but.....

We usually have loads of Christmas lights outside our house. We don't go overboard with presents etc I but just love being festive, yeah I'm probably bit of a saddo but there you go.

This year, is it in bad taste to do this? Should I cut back to just a twinkly string above the door? We are definitely feeling the cost of living crisis at the momentum but our energy bills are fixed so won't cost us any extra. Obviously we should all be mindful of the environment though. We usually put them up 2nd week of Dec.

I'm missing the point but what do you mean it won't cost you any extra? Surely you would pay for the extra kWh used by the lights.

You do you. I think to scale back because of what others are going through is a bit of virtue signalling.
No one is going to thank you for not putting lights up in the name of the cost of living crisis.

We have nextdoor's flashing lights into our living room for weeks on end. Not a fan...have awkward blinds and no curtains due to the pelmets, looking forward to being able to fix this shortly.

Do you mean your tariff is fixed, surely you’ll pay more if you use more electricity?

We are putting ours up at the start of Dec, they bring joy to us and cost less than £20 for 8hrs each day for a month. On balance we'll worth it.

We don't have twinkly ones though, or flashing (I thought that was the etiquette you were asking about), because we have neighbours opposite.

Put the Iights on! Yabu

Please do it, nothing better than walking around the neighbourhood looking at the Christmas Lights.

How will it not cost you more? There’s no such thing as fixed bills for electricity that I’m aware of…

@RandyMandyy
What do you mean, "our energy bills are fixed so won't cost us any extra"?

Some people are on fixed-PRICE tariffs, where the price per kWh was fixed before the recent price hikes. However, the more electricity you use, the more money it costs you.

If you have discovered an "all you can eat" style tariff, well done you. But you just might want to double check before ramping up your usage.

Apologies if I have misunderstood you.

And I haven't even answered your question either, sorry.

My daughter is in a shared house rental, bills are included (with a "reasonable use" clause). So a few Christmas lights won't make a difference to her bill at all.

I think OP means they are fixed so it won't cost more to do than it did in previous years. I'd put them up OP, I like seeing other people's lights.

OP clearly means it will only cost the same as it did last year, not that she gets unlimited electricity

I keep seeing this idea on here
Is this a thing now?
Mustn't have Christmas lights in case people are offended? What??

Led lights cost peanuts to run. I'll definitely be putting mine up.

It never occurred to me not to. I'm sure no one cares.

Who would be offended by Christmas lights just because they're feeling a bit skint themselves?

No I want to see Christmas as normal as possible. It costs pennies for modern light to run. I don’t want to have COL staring me in the face at every turn. If you can afford to run the lights then do what you’d usually do. We need things to cheer us up. Walking around looking at Christmas lights is a free activity we can still do this year with the kids.

I have got rid of all old lights over the last few years so mine are all LED so not really that expensive to run. I will be putting all mine up but not till first week In December. Also in the house when the Christmas lights are on you don’t need so many normal lights on

You'll pay for the electricity you use whatever the tariff. So if you want to light up your street crack on.

Up to you but maybe turn them off at a sensible time?

Just for the record, all of the posters who are spouting things along the lines of "No one should do Christmas lights because it is rubbing wealth in the faces of people who are struggling/can't afford it" are blatant virtue signallers. If they really cared about people who are feeling pinch, they'd do something practical like donate to a Christmas toy appeal instead of preaching about not putting up fairy lights.

only on mumsnet would anyone think this is an issue. For the record, put your lights up

One of our favourite Xmas holiday things to do is look at the Xmas lights in the neighbourhood. It’s a free night out with the kids!

OP clearly means it won’t cost her anymore this year than last. Not that it won’t cost anymore than her usual monthly cost

Every year when we do battle with the big tree and the enormous light string we get at least one neighbour tell us our lights mean Christmas has arrived. We forgot to take them down last year and just tested them and they still work. We’ll be lighting the tree for December like we usually do.

We are definitely feeling the cost of living crisis at the momentum but our energy bills are fixed so won't cost us any extra.

I think you've misunderstood your "fixed " electricity tarrif.
The price per unit is fixed; the number of units used is not. The more units you use the higher the bill will be. There is no cap on how high your bill could go.

If we do reach rolling power cuts to ration use, then your lights will be regarded as tactless waste of resources.

We love walking/driving round and seeing all the lights and decorations, and if we had fewer than normal at home Id love to see more elsewhere to help keep the festive spirit alive!