Christmas lights

[lentilly]

If you usually put up outdoor lights are you scaling back this year? Our neighbours have awful things that flash so I'm hoping they don't this year.

We'll be doing exactly the same as usual. I love to look at our lights twinkling through the trees as I'm driving along the lane.

Not scaling back.
Conceivably we might turn them off earlier at night, e.g. 9.30 rather than 10.30.

I'm actually looking at buying another tree and even more lights. Christmas is my favourite time of year and I'll be keeping the occasion as normal as possible

We'll be doing the same as usual, surely LED lights are quite a minimal cost?

No. Led lights cost hardly anything to run.

Lentilly, I’m with you. My neighbour has vile randomly flashing chaser lights all over his house and garden. I’m autistic, and suffer sensory overload from the damn things - I can see them through my skylights and round the edges of all my blackout curtains.
I would love to think he is not going to inflict the usual six weeks of hell this year, but sadly I think nothing will stop him. His wife told a mutual acquaintance that they add more every year as they know it annoys me.

Yes! We bought black out curtains especially this year! I'm hoping they will turn them off earlier rather than leave them going all night.

Our neighbour had a cycle of about 5 christmas songs playing in an endless loop from 4pm to 10pm, the bass rattling round my head when trying to wind down in the evening, sent me close to meltdown at times when he forgot to turn it off until even later. I hope that gets booted this year.

We have brought solar lights. We have in garden now over spa (which is drained and packed away for winter)

and even now they are alight at 4am tho dull by then

so cost nothing to use and look lovely

Solar String Lights Outdoor, 2 Pack Each 120 LED/12M Garden Solar Lights Waterproof Silver Wire Outdoor Fairy Lights for Gazebo, Garden Decoration, Home, Trees, Terrace, Weddings, Party (Colorful) amzn.eu/1aVPOHu

Is that true? I was trying to find out how much extra it will cost.
one of my most comforting thoughts is waiting until I can put up the lights. And I wanted to do more this year to cancel out the shortness.
not outlandish outdoor things.I’m meaning indoor fairy lights inside round windows and doors etc.
but I’m now just filled with dread and can’t do it because I’m worried about any price increase to the bills

We have them all year(lazy and left up from a party a few years back!).they are a constant golden glow in the garden which is quite pretty.

They do look nice

We will be putting ours up, but having them go off earlier.

Lights on all night in the garden are a menace - they disturb roosting wild birds and affect their circadian rhythms. It would be more environmentally responsible to turn them off when you go to bed - they serve no purpose when you are asleep anyway.

No, not scaling back at all here.

You can’t turn then off @Babdoc they are solar

so tbh by 3/4am they are fading

I love the lights as they brighten up the house. Might turn off at 9.30 instead of 10

Few strings of fairy lights aren't going to cost that much.

But if you are one of those people that goes for extreme outside christmas lighting displays and leaves them on 14 hours a day then it's possible that the costs will mount up to something significant.

So probably worth asking whether that giant flashing reindeer in your front garden with 100W of LEDs on it making it brighter than the sun is really worth it.

We had solar lights outside last year and I'm planning on buying more for this year. They worked really well considering it was winter and not that much sunshine

Won’t be scaling back, but tend to have very subtle lights rather than ridiculous flashing monstrosities with music.

A lot of my outdoor lights are also battery powered and timed to come on from 4pm - 10pm.

I have solar battery ones but only one little string so it isn’t a concern.

the city lights are going to come on a week later and turn off an hour earlier on weeknights. They also swapped t he bulbs to LED bulbs which saved 4000€ (but the cost of Xmas lights is 400,000) apparently!

my city won the “European Xmas Capital” competition this year so they must be gutted they have to pull out all the stops now!

We have over 1000 lights on the tree of various designs, and hopefully they will all still be working when we get them out NEXT WEEK! It takes us 2 weeks to do what we want done, so we have to start early!