By Grace Shaw and Travis Smith
Due to the cost of living crisis, many households are refraining from putting up their Christmas lights this year. Some residents are making the tough decision on where to cut their household budgets, and for many, Christmas lights are the first to go.
Amrita Virdi, 44, retail manager said: “Usually, I would turn my Christmas lights on without a doubt but we’ve got to cut where we can and at the end of the day it’s only the passers-by that would see them anyway. It’s a shame but everything is just so expensive.”
According to USwitch.com, if you keep 200 LED fairy lights on for six hours you would be adding approximately £6.77 to your energy bill, which equates to just over a £1 an hour. However, switching to incandescent bulbs could save you 61p over the same time period.
For most households, this saving is not enough. Another Holloway resident, Jamie Hicks, 31, said: “This year is going to be difficult for us I highly doubt that we will be bothering to put lights up, as the kid’s present budget has already gone down due to the crisis.”
Sixteen percent of UK households “won’t be putting up their Christmas lights this year, while just over a quarter will be putting up fewer lights in a bid to save on energy costs,” according to research from Go.Compare, said the parenting website Good to Know.
This shows that something as small as Christmas lights can have a massive impact on cost during the holiday season, for everyone.
The holidays should be festive time for all, but for many the lights are out this Christmas.
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