Christmas lights. Am I being a Scrooge?

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It's possible that I am. I'm in a panic about money at the moment, made all the worse because I'm on annual leave so I've got time to shit myself and hyperventilate worry about it.

I love Christmas and I love Christmas lights.

But this post in the Argus seems a bit off, given that we have real issues with energy at the moment?
I think I read that it's for charity but I'm not sure that's the best excuse way to be making money for charity at the moment.

Aibu?

Extremely tacky and declasse any year, but now in an energy crisis, cost of living, climate change...it's just fucking obscene.
Bah humbug. Ban them all.

I'm the least bah-humbug person but I agree with you on this one.

I don't know.

yeah they probably shouldn't be using a lot of unnecessary electricity, but OTOH it will cheer people up AND raise money for charity, which is a better use of electricity than, say, overnight office lighting.

there's a guy a street over from me who does this every year & the community raises a lot of money for the charity. A couple of years ago he started taking out the cost of the electricity and giving the net gain to the charity. There was a right drama over it, but I didn't have a problem with it. He was still providing all the decorations, music and putting the whole lot up (hours & hours of work).

I was a bit surprised to hear he's still doing it this year, as I wrestled with the same dilemma. But as I said above, I'm kind of on the fence, but slowly dropping down on the 'happiness & charity fundraising side.

I'll go & get the 'feels' and drop notes rather than loose change into the pot (very sophisticated Shute/safe system now so it can't get stolen!!

I think they look dreadful and I do judge but apparently they don't cost all that much to run.

Unfortunately.

Watch out the fun Police are about...

Donate £1000 for them to keep them off

One of my neighbours left his on all night until about 5.30am this morning...I guess his timer didn't work.

I'm not bothering this year.

This year, when there's talk of blackouts (albeit last resort), yeah, 'fraid so.

It's still November so yanbu

Maybe they are living by candle light inside to make up for it?

We have an entire street that does this in our town. I’m relieved we didn’t buy a house on it. But then we don’t do Christmas at all in any shape or form.

We’ve got new neighbours and judging by the amount of shite they decorated the house with for Halloween I’ve got a nagging feeling that there’ll be more lights than Times Square at Christmas.

I can't get worked over it. Like anything flashy others can offord and I never will.

My ten year old has just had his yearly school review and he is scoring down at a five year old level. So it kinda puts what I need to give headspace too in a different light so maybe I'm not the best person to say. But of every injustice in the UK, this isn't at aneurism level rage really. If it was to raise war funds for Putin maybe, but meh. It's going to make people happy.

I know what you mean, it looks incongruous this year.

As ever part of the problem is the government is being completely useless about the energy situation - are we supposed to be trying to use less due to potential blackouts or is it just a matter of personal finances? Some clearer messaging about the national situation wouldn't hurt.

Wow that is possibly a bit too much.

It's not my taste on that scale, but if people can afford to run their lights (and LEDs are very low power) we need every scrap of joy we can get right now.

There hasn't been a normal Christmas since 2019, so most people will be trying to have as normal a Christmas as they can manage, and using existing lights is an easy way to literally lighten up a world that can feel very bleak at times.

It's fun. Christmas lights don't cost much to run and given the amount of energy already saved with everyone freezing and not cooking, I'm sure it won't break the grid.

I don't do lights on the outside of my house because I can't see them so I don't see the point. But it's nice to see lights up already, and it would be pretty shit if no one at all did it.

This isn't about affording it. I've no doubt they can afford it.

Do you watch the news?!

if people can afford to run their lights (and LEDs are very low power) we need every scrap of joy we can get right now I think some things that used to bring joy - like these lights - don't feel the same because we are also reading news articles about energy shortages and blackouts?

No. I minted and live under a rock 😙

I think huge OTT light displays, along with sending helium and plastic and lighted lanterns in the air, belong firmly in our uneducated past.

Exactly.

Im guessing those who are talking about the joy of excessive lighting aren't reading the news?

It shows.

Then should we ban mid-match cups of tea because those surges do actually make a difference to the grid?
Ban roasting turkeys because of needing ovens (high energy) on at the same time on Christmas Day?

LED fairy lights make a negligable difference to power usage on the grid. A large proportion is industrial/ commercial anyway. Fiddling away with domestic changes is small fry (although will make a difference to your personal bill) and a lot of domestic usage is on appliances such as fridges and freezers that we can't control. Fairy lights don't compare. That house has a lot, but lighting up on that scale is anomalous anyway.

I read the news, and if it's not the usual level of perma-crisis, clickbait scaremongering then I'm prepared for dealing with power outages, but I'm not going to fret that an excess of festive cheer at number 26 is going to be the clincher in triggering a power cut, and moralising over it.

We’ve got Christmas lights up (have managed to talk DH out of the tree until Dec 1st 😆) We’ve only got white ones around the front of the house and it’ll probably only cost a few quid to run this month so not too worried.