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.

What a truly lovely thing to do! Well done you! I love the candles, lamps and lights that our winter brings - so I’m right there with you 😊!

I would love to see the lamps or have a lamp thread… fellow lamp
lover here… I love nothing more than seeing houses lit up, I love being on a train and seeing that little peep into homes and gardens, on a dog walk seeing the trees in the window at Christmas it’s the best

When I switch lights off and my son goes upstairs he says....it's like Whitepool illuminations up here 🤣'

Also when I was in Northern Europe during a winter, it got light very late in the morning and after a couple of hours it was dusk at 14h in the afternoon.
The flat didn’t have curtains but two sets of double/triple glazed windows with a gap inbetween.

It never was night during the summer just dusk for a couple of hours about midnight

Cost of electricity plus never heard of keeping a light in a window

This is a hoot and I largely agree with OP. But then lived in Germany for 5+ years and like Holland, they have not embraced the British love of curtains, like much of Europe. Personally, I put it down to the Blitz. Little Englanders worrying the the German airforce may suddenly decide it's time to bomb London again and don't want to get in trouble with the wardens when they check for total blackout conditions. WW2 has never really ended here.

@Thisismynewname23 We should have a lamp topic! I am quite minimalist and spend too much money on Louis Poulsen lamps, but I also quite like Pooky lamps (better for my bank account!) and my most recent purchase was a gorgeous lamp from Habitat😍

It is really really harmful to all wildlife, which in turn affects our lives, and future generations lives on this earth.

I really like my front garden tree lights and am wondering if I can get away with having them there all year round.

They're solar powered too! But I wouldn't want to look like Christmas all year round.

OP, you'd love my house. I have blinds not properly shut with soft lights inside, first seen on the windowsill. I feel I can do this without being ogled at because I'm far enough from the street to have anyone really see anything for too long, other than calm, inviting lights twinkling softly through the blinds...

And for anyone who says they dont care about wildlife!

If it’s any consolation, the December light up is getting earlier and earlier - and given Halloween now gets the same treatment, I can see the two merging into one at some point.

Have you never seen the PSA films telling us to switch everything off at night otherwise the house will be in cinders?

British PSAs were brutal back in the day. All of us of a certain age can still see the wee girl with her bandaged hand after fireworks night

Has anyone on this thread said that?

We spent Christmas in France. They don’t even put up Christmas lights on their house (or very few did). They all have shutters which they close when it gets dark, so you can’t see in. The same in Spain, I was there a few weeks ago and they all close the shutters at night.

I spat my drink out at this lol

Having lights on during the day if it is dim can indeed be helpful, but having lights on when people are ready to sleep or preparing to sleep is not. I'm sure you will tell me that you can sleep perfectly well even when there is lots of light and you can see stars perfectly well, but light can affect people's sleep patterns and your eyes need to be adjusted to the dark to be able to appreciate night skies. Also, animals are affected more than you would think (as the previous poster has said).

Houses are built differently here. I lived in London and definitely shut our curtains because the rooms were designed in a way that if you were outside you’d see everything. The windows were low. And the pavement was just outside. If I walk around my block (in Sweden) right now, not a single person would have curtains drawn but I also bet I wouldn’t see anyone in their well lit houses. If I do I would have stand right next to their windows and peep in to see anything worth seeing.

I’m up for a cosy lamp thread OP a nice way to start the new year once the Christmas lights come down and England is once again plunged into darkness!

I would feel horrendously exposed if I didn’t draw the curtains. We get loads of dog walkers walking past, even when it’s dark, who could see right into our living room. I’d worry that there was a peeping Tom, or even worse, a sniper in the front garden watching me do a little dance or scratching my tits.

I don’t sleep with my lights on. The window is open in our bedroom no matter how cold, but it’s dark. The small lights in our kitchen windows are on, but they don’t blind anyone. Nor do the rechargable candles with timers. There are special lamps/light bulbs for everything here. I can currently hear the owl just outside, and no doubt deer and rabbits will turn up soon to have some water or an apple. The squirrels have already collected walnuts from our tree and dug to hide in our grass. I will see the noisy as hell pheasant tomorrow again and a cat that I suspect might be a stray cat. And like I said, the sleeping hedgehog under our patio is still sound asleep, None of them are disturbed by our kitchen lights. But, it’s an important discussion.

Karens?

I was preempting the usual responses that come when this topic is discussed

Ohhhhh, well I'm sure you felt very clever but OP is Swedish so I bet you that she pays at least half of that bill. Swedish women don't tend to leave bill paying for their husbands (or wives).

Fellow 🇸🇪 here. God Fortsattning!

That single sentence says so much about the cultural differences though, those are words you’d never hear from a Swede. Male or female. 😅