Apologies for mentioning Christmas while still in October. But I was saddened to learn that soaring electricity prices have forced one householder not to put up their annual festive display of Santa and his helpers.
Bernard and Denise Lumsden, Bristol, have annually transformed their home into a huge festive light display using 50,000 lights and raising £15,000 for charity over the last 20 years.
But last year’s electricity bill, which covered six months, was £1,200 – double the previous year. This year’s bill would be much higher, I guess. I’ve often wondered how much these spectacular displays cost, and know how much pleasure they give to all generations.
I wonder how many more lights will go out this Christmas? And how long will it be before an environmentally friendly alternative energy source is available which is capable of achieving the same stunning results?
It’s a sign of the times when this has to happen.
All I can say is thank God for that…. Mostly all tacky stuff and not really the true Christmas spirit at all; not to mention a huge waste of electricity and a pointless excercise in excess and scale. Why not have a few lights round the windows like any normal sane person?
I fell out of love with Christmas a little when boots started advertising on TV on my birthday (at the beginning of September) and the creeping tendrils of commerciality have now reached into the far echelons of early summer; madness, utter madness.
I now only enjoy Christmas for the time with the family and the meal and watching the toddlers opening their presents.THAT’s what Christmas is truly about; Carol Singers, Mulled Wine, joy, togetherness, Christmas Dinner, happiness and simplicity. Hopefully the commercialism of Christmas will start to be eroded. 🙂
Oh, and as an aside… The charity side of things would be dealt with by Carol Singers; I was in a group many years ago and we regularly raised a couple of hundred pounds each night…. Bring back proper Carol Singing I say!
But it’s the kind of tackiness that brings a smile to your face – or if not yours, to others, particularly kids.
I personally don’t like all these displays. Most of them do look very tacky, but I imagine this Christmas will see reduction in the numbers of elaborately decorated homes. It’s not just the cost of electricity, but also many will not be able to afford the replacement decorations.
I guess we did drive around nearby at Christmas to see what people had on offer. Some were great and some not so great. I bet a few of them won’t bother this year!
I have to say that I don’t really like to see houses decorated with a lot of Christmas lights. It is horribly wasteful.
I think it would be nice if each town had a one or two houses that did it for charity and perhaps had subsidised electricity as a result. Then people could go and look at those and we wouldn’t have the problem of whole streets with nasty nights.
My children love to see all the lights of course and if they saw me writing this they would scowl at me and call me “Scrooge”
Well yeah but one of our locals had their lights up on sept 4th.
Yep, SEPTEMBER 4th.
Whoa! Christmas already? Yes, I guess we do have to start thinking about it but please, not until at least after Halloween! There is one street near me where all the neighbours do up their homes and it really is beautiful. But I’m wondering how many will continue considering the economy. I don’t do much with lights because I’d have to hire someone to put them up and take them down, but I put up the tree and all the little decorations around the house inside. Let’s enjoy the autumn colours before thinking about the Christmas ones, though. 😀
I expect that they’d draw a much larger crowd if the house caught fire.
They’d need a police cordon then. I bet they don’t need a police cordon now – I think that pretty much sums up the value of this ‘entertainment’.
If they were raising the money for charity they could have taken from what they received the extra cost of the electricity that was required for the lighting display and then given what was left to charity.
Having said that it seems that the whole thing of lighting up houses has got a little out of hand. Perhaps straightened times while make people think a little harder about what Christmas really is about.
Richard, I wondered about that too, I must admit.
A couple of years ago, our nearest town didn’t have Christmas lights and it didn’t feel very festive and jolly. I guess the idea is to make you want to spend more, and certainly many families won’t be able to do that this year. Christmas is going to be a lean time for many of us. It is certainly good to reevaluate your values and beliefs.
Somebody made the point today that the EU Parliament leaves all its lights on every night
Some would argue, me included, that that’s a perfect example of the maxim ‘lights are on, but there’s nobody home…’
This is really sad, especially as the holidays draw nearer. Thank you for covering this subject though, it’s good to know about it.