Feel free to say I am being unreasonable

I do get your point Grandetante.
It seems wrong to think of unnecessary lights when we are all being told how to save electricity, and people don't have enough to eat and heat their homes.
But if those who can afford to put up the usual Christmas lights do so, it will make the dark winter days much more cheerful.
I think they will be very much needed this year.

I've got solar lights all year round in the garden - they are good ones with a big solar panel so stay lit even in dull winter days.
Christmas lights are all battery operated - safer!

Seeing all the Christmas lights cheers up the cold dark days for masses of people, including I am sure many of those who are struggling financially, and LED lights don’t actually use much electricity at all.
I dare say many Bah Humbug! types would like to see them banned, though.

*grandetanteJE65. You always have Christmas lights that run on batteries, I would have thought if you were having 2 hour blackouts, they might be a spark of cheer, and you could always bunch them over a book so that you could read when it is dark.

I have solar lights and battery lights all year in the garden. It lights up and brighten up gardens. As it's already been said your money you earned it spend it on what makes you happy.

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 .

Nice to hear, but here with our electricity, heating and food prices something has to go, and the electricity companies are warning us there will be two hour power cuts daily if the winter weather is cold and not very windy to make sure there is enough electricity for the entire country. Obviously, many of us feel we can do without Christmas lights either in private homes or in the streets.

I had received the impression that things were even worse in the UK, but apparently I was mistaken.

You are not being unreasonable in your view - that's your opinion- but you ARE being unreasonable in expecting everyone to have the same view.

We will be putting up as many lights as we can physically manage and most are solar.

Many solar lights do not need sunlight to work, they are photovoltaic cells so only need light.

The people in my immediate area are not Christian and belong to various ethnic minorities but love to decorate their houses and windows nevertheless. Whatever floats your boat.

I love Christmas lights. I also love that quote Monica. How true it is.

I might even get my trees up a bit earlier this year. My AC all tend to get their decorations done in the first week of December and I might just join them!

We have a string of 300 fairy lights that we put round a pyracantha in our front garden in early November and are on a timer from 4pm to 10pm. It uses three AA batteries and I didn't need to change them and they kept going until the end of January when I took them down. So as others have pointed out, comparatively inexpensive and brightened up the dark evenings which we'll definitely need this year.

The solar lights in my garden will dim soon I expect. My only Christmas ones are indoors and run off batteries. So quite harmless and not extravagant really as they are quite small.

As Shakespeare says ' Does thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?'

It comes from 12th Night, a play written for the end of the Christmas season. It must have cost a lot to put on and that money should have been given to the poor. if that had happened the world would have been deprived of one of Shakespears most delightful comedies.

One of my favourites but I'd forgotten that line ? thank you for reminding me

There is so much doom and gloom at the moment and it looks as if it could all get a lot worse so perhaps we'll all need to be cheered up by December.

Kalu

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

We've got some solar lights too but we'll have to hope for some sun ?
We have one string of icicle lights too, not sure how much they cost to run.
It won't be instead of helping the food bank.

Some people light up the outside of their homes at Christmas and raise money for charity that way. I'm not sure if they'll be so keen to do it this year with the cost of electricity going up so muc.

There is something about lights in Winter that cheer, I will have a few as usual, all LED’s.Perhaps we need more not less?
We will all make our own minds up on this matter.
It is very early to start advertising though.

Good for you Monica.
It’s the same as everything else, you can choose what to do with your money, some people choose to smoke, some people choose to have takeaway every other night, others spend their money on hair extensions or Botox, up to them, their money.

If we all gave all our disposable income to charities, the economy would grind to a halt.

It really doesn’t have to be either/or.

I dislike the way when someone has a bee in their bonnet about some minor expenditure, they starting coming over all heavy with the emotional blackmail.

Why should anyone have to justify buying a set of Christmas lights by proving that this trivial purchase, £10, will not cut into their charitable giving.

Well, I am saying anything about whether I give to charity or not and I have every intention of buying some more Christmas lights this year to decorate our new extension, or should I have given the money spent on the extension to charity. It kept a lot of people in work at a time when many in the building trade were out of work.

As Shakespeare says ' Does thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?'

It comes from 12th Night, a play written for the end of the Christmas season. It must have cost a lot to put on and that money should have been given to the poor. if that had happened the world would have been deprived of one of Shakespears most delightful comedies.

I bought a new set of solar lights at the weekend for the front garden they make me feel safe and happy !

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

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.)

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

Different budgets and priorities

I can understand a business advertising to survive

?. ? ? MOnica.

Not for me but live and let live..

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.

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.