Feel free to say I am being unreasonable

YANBU. it's an unnecessary purchase. I'll be under my heated blanket instead.

I don't know, it is not as if there is a shortage of electricity, it is just more expensive. So if someone turns on their fairy lights it is not taking electricity away from anyone else.
I don't see there is a connection between paying for electricity and giving to charity.

Solar lights only allowed here as I had the same thoughts as you. No electricity or used batteries involved.

Oh dear! I love Christmas lights.
The neighbours display of outdoor lights are well known in the area, and people donate towards charity already.
I hope we can still go ahead and enjoy the lights this year?

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Ugh..its only September..

My solar-powered garden lights will soon stop working. I’m keen to learn of those which work in December.

I use battery lights during the winter and solar when/if theres some sun.Iwill certainly be putting up christmas lights .Last year christmas was abandoned as my lovely MIL died just before it and and the 4 friends within days of her
This year we'll all try to make it as happy as we can for the kids and nothing says christmas more than lots of lights .

Grandetante I have always given 15-20% of my salary to charities they include the local foodbank and the Soup kitchen in Glasgow .It doesn't have to be one or the other .

I know someone who lives in a south London street that's famous for its Xmas lights display - people come from far and wide to view and money is raised for charity.

I like to see a few lights here and there and I know young children love to see houses and trees lit up at night.

A bit of good cheer never goes amiss!

All the bulbs in these lights are LEDs. The amount of electricity they use is very little indeed, that is why you can now buy so many strings of lights that just run off ordinary small batteries.

If your lights are left on for 6 hours a day, then 0.08kW x 6 hours will mean a 0.48kW output. As energy prices rise to around 17p per kW, keeping your lights on for 6 hours a day for a whole month costs just £2.48.
www.idealhome.co.uk/christmas-ideas/do-christmas-tree-lights-use-lots-of-electricity-295593

Even with the price increased for the increase in the price of electricity, it really isn't much. And while I fully understand that for users of Food Banks the cost of something like this is beyond their means. It needs to be remembered that 60% of the population live in households with an income of over £30,000, 40% in excess of £40,000, and 20% in excess of £60,000 www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/householddisposableincomeandinequality/financialyearending2021,

so for many houeholds, spending £10 of their Christmas budget on fairy lights is not excessive.

I think most of the Christmas lights decorating the outside of houses in excessive and garish quantities are a crime against humanity, anyway.

So who am I to say YANBU or YABU...

(I have one tasteful little string of white ones in a bush..)

I won't be putting the lights up this Christmas in fact it will be probably be a quiet one as well.
In fact I could really do with out it this year.

doesn't bother me at all.
i ruen over tv when adverts come on, then get interested in something else, then change again at next break, so i watch bits of different things.
so i just expect to totally ignore most advertising.
so it doesn't bother me.

i mean i change channels at ad breaks, of course.
OP, i don't think you are being unreasonable, it just doesn't bother me at all, it hardly reaches my consciousness.

Ilovecheese

I don't know, it is not as if there is a shortage of electricity, it is just more expensive. So if someone turns on their fairy lights it is not taking electricity away from anyone else.
I don't see there is a connection between paying for electricity and giving to charity.

I thought we were being warned that there could be a shortage of electricity this coming winter, hence the talk of possible power cuts, no?

It's not that you're being unreasonable or otherwise. We're pretty well informed of the awfulness that's about to or already is hitting us. I feel we should all be able to make up our own minds on this sort of thing without needing any conscience prompts.

Most outdoor lights nowadays are LED lights and don’t use a lot of electricity. We’ve got some and intend putting them up over Christmas. It’s for such a short time and I find them cheery. We’ve not got lots, just a few strings to go on the outside walls, following the line of the porch and the window, as I dislike lots of garish lights and light up reindeer, santas, etc. For me, less is more , but they do cheer me up during a dark and dismal time of year.

Not for me but live and let live..

?. ? ? MOnica.

Different budgets and priorities

I can understand a business advertising to survive

Totally inappropriate. Fuel prices are soaring, we’re careering headlong into a recession and there’s a burgeoning climate crisis.

M0nica

All the bulbs in these lights are LEDs. The amount of electricity they use is very little indeed, that is why you can now buy so many strings of lights that just run off ordinary small batteries.

If your lights are left on for 6 hours a day, then 0.08kW x 6 hours will mean a 0.48kW output. As energy prices rise to around 17p per kW, keeping your lights on for 6 hours a day for a whole month costs just £2.48.
www.idealhome.co.uk/christmas-ideas/do-christmas-tree-lights-use-lots-of-electricity-295593

Even with the price increased for the increase in the price of electricity, it really isn't much. And while I fully understand that for users of Food Banks the cost of something like this is beyond their means. It needs to be remembered that 60% of the population live in households with an income of over £30,000, 40% in excess of £40,000, and 20% in excess of £60,000 www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/householddisposableincomeandinequality/financialyearending2021,

so for many houeholds, spending £10 of their Christmas budget on fairy lights is not excessive.

I’m glad to know this, M0nica, thank you. (I don’t have lights outside the house but I like to see them.)

paddyann54

Grandetante I have always given 15-20% of my salary to charities they include the local foodbank and the Soup kitchen in Glasgow .It doesn't have to be one or the other .

This^
It doesn't have to be a choice....lots of people can still afford and will do....and they provide enjoyment for those that can't afford with their outdoor illuminations