Why do Brits live in darkness except for December?

[Swedegirl48]

I am Swedish and at home if you walk down a street, most houses will have lamps in some of the windows, outside lights and usually people don’t draw curtains so you can see the lights from within the houses. I was asking British DH today why Brits tend to light up their houses so enthusiastically in December, but the rest of the year people draw their curtains and no one seems to put lamps in the windows (at least not where we live which is London). I am the only person in my street who has a lamp in every window of my house and leave some on overnight too. I think I am trying to overcompensate for my very dark street.

Save the earth.

In addition to the great points made by PPs, we have the highest energy prices in Europe (despite all the promises of bills falling with renewables, it hasn't happened). We turn lights off, not have them on when it's not necessary.

There's no "fönsterbräde" in British houses. Nowhere to put a lamp, usually

Yes, it's something Britain is famous for. No windowsills. Also an 😕.This thread is bonkers already.

Ours are very narrow (about 10 cm) so useless for holding anything, especially as we have cats who'd just knock it all off anyway.

Because we don't want dodgy people looking onto our houses.

Our streets do need to be lit better though. I was going to get a second front light that stays on permanently.

I say that every day to my teenager 😂

Have you seen the shutters on German houses? Its like living in a bank vault.

Because we no longer live in the Victorian times?

Why are you wasting energy leaving lights on? Who is the lamp for? Street lighting is a thing …

I always wonder the same!!

Curtains / blinds / shutters are normally open, lamps on and outdoor lanterns on. Lights on around the house for atmosphere, I'd hate for the rest of the house to be in darkness when moving around it.

I bloody love staring into peoples houses who do the same 😂

Are you my neighbour. Outside lights, inside lights all night long??? Polluting my space with her unreasonably bright lights.

Street lighting isn't a thing in a lot of areas now. We have LED streetlights, turned right down (to save council money 🙄), and they go off at 1am. Lots of us are using phone torches and I've nearly fallen over a kerb twice. The white LED lights are bad for wildlife too. Apparently the old orange ones weren't as detrimental.

A seriously stroppy e-mail is going to the council this winter.

I have a light either side of my front door and in the fascia above the garage door. I like to see light but don’t leave them on all night. The street lights around here are naff.

I think it's a massive sweeping generalisation that brits live in the dark. Whilst I don't have a lamp on in every room in my house (why would I do that if I'm not in the room) I do still have lamps on, candles flickering, fairy lights twinkling in my living room all year round. Most of us were brought up to turn lights off when we leave a room with parents screaming at us to do it. Most of us can't afford to light up our houses in every corner of every area. I do have an outside light on just for a bit of security but I would day most houses do have an outside light (whether they use it or not).

Curtains I find are a divided thing. My nan always closed her believing it was for warmth, my husband likes them closed because it's "cosy "....I have a friend that simply just doesn't like the dark. Others do it for privacy. Personally I'm not bothered either way but ours are shut as I reckon most are.

Winter is hard for a lot of brits. My dh suffers with S.A.D and one of the best pieces advice he was ever given, was just to go through it, like the animals. They all hibernate, they all hunker down, they all accept what is coming....and I think a lot of brits just accept it as a dark cold season

LED lights cost next to nothing.

It’s very bright inside my house but I have no intention of lighting the road as well , I’m inside not outside .

We clearly have the same father

I am a Londoner and have little string lights out all year round

Some are by my living room window, some on the unit underneath my TV and others on another unit
I love it . My reasoning is that pubs have lights (all be it coloured bulbs usually) in beer gardens all Year round.
I also have no lamp and don't always want the big light on so these are ideal

It's not a uniquely British thing to not light windows and close curtains!

Maybe this shouldn’t be a “why don’t British people put lamps in every window” and more of a “why do Swedish people put lamps in every window.” I just feel like the title and tone of your thread suggests British people are doing something wrong, and we’re not, it’s just that that’s not really our thing.

And also I don’t really agree that British people live in darkness, I have lots of lamps in my home to brighten it up in a cosy way, they’re just not in the windows.

I light my house up all through the dark evenings OP. It actually helps me with my anxiety and depression to have lamps on everywhere.

I don't leave them on all night though - they're on smart plugs and go off around midnight. All my bulbs are LED and relatively cheap to run - have to say all the whining about the cost of electricity on here is a bit OTT. The payoff for my mental health is more than worth a few quid extra every month to run my lamps.

I don’t purposefully light up the outside, but I have lots of fairy lights, lamps etc in my home, and tend to leave the curtains open at night until I go to bed. I find closing them horribly oppressive. I don’t mind people being able to see in- I have fuck all to steal, and what will they see? A chubby woman in her leggings and crappy jumper staring at Netflix 6 nights out of 7. 🤷‍♀️

Mine doesn’t or not ones that anything can be put on. Victorian house - the sills are about 6cm.

@Ponoka

Many Victorian houses, like ours, do not have windowsills as the windows are set flush with the interior face of the wall so the sills are on the outside.

Dark curtains blinds etc you can't see if I'm in or out but it's bright indoors

As a swede, living in Sweden, I bloody hate it. We have bat boxes in our trees but the bats have left due to my neighbour's constant light pollution.