One in ten Scots have already put up Christmas lights

When Neil Wright decided to put up his Christmas lights two weeks before the end of November, he wondered if he was too early.
Mr Wright said he has put the lights up earlier than usual this year.Mr Wright said he has put the lights up earlier than usual this year.
Mr Wright said he has put the lights up earlier than usual this year.

But new figures have revealed that he is not alone: more than one in ten Scots have already put up lights this year in a bid to brighten up the dark winter months living under coronavirus restrictions.

Around 12 per cent of people north of the border have already turned on their Christmas illuminations, compared to just seven per cent in Northern Ireland and 28 per cent in London. Across the UK, four million households have started Christmas early, according to the poll from uSwitch.com.

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Mr Wright, who, with his wife Susan Burrell, has three children and is a full time foster carer to two foster children with learning disabilities, said he hoped to “spread some Christmas cheer”.

Neil Wright, of Dalkeith, put his Christmas lights up two weeks ago.Neil Wright, of Dalkeith, put his Christmas lights up two weeks ago.
Neil Wright, of Dalkeith, put his Christmas lights up two weeks ago.

He said: "It is my daughter’s birthday on 3 December, so we usually put the decorations up just before that. Then I noticed that quite a lot of people near us had already started putting their lights up earlier this year and after what everyone has been through in the past twelve months, we just wanted to have a bit of fun. I definitely wasn’t the first to do it in our area and I’m certainly not going to be the last.”

Complete with an animated Santa, house lights, window displays and six penguins, Mr Wright’s display has already attracted a lot of attention from neighbours near his Dalkeith home.

"We’ve already had quite a lot of people coming round and having a look and I think people are doing it as a trail this year,” he said. “It’s for the kids. After this year, we just want everyone to leave 2020 with a bit of a smile on their faces. One of our foster children is quite severely disabled and her face just lights up when she sees it. Christmas is going to be fantastic.”

The report found that most people who have already dug out the decorations turned on their festive lights on 26 November - five days earlier than the conventional 1 December switch-on and plan to keep their lights on for an extra four days this year. They said they plan to turn off the festive cheer on 7 January - a day later than last year.

People spend £52 on average on their outdoor light display, which typically has more than two types of decorations, with fairy lights being the most common illumination. Glowing reindeers are a more popular installation than Santas or snowmen.

A household with 200 fairy lights and a light-up reindeer could expect to add £11 to their energy bill if they ran their decorations for six hours a night from November 26 to January 7, the report said.

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Sarah Broomfield, energy expert at Uswitch.com, said: “Many of us have already seen Christmas displays going up in our streets as people put their lights on in November to brighten the dark days of lockdown.

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“The big displays can look very impressive, but they can also dramatically increase energy consumption, particularly if they are using old, non-LED lights. If you are planning to buy some lights, it is always worth checking the labels to see how much energy they use."

Christmas lights – albeit not electric – were first documented by a young Queen Victoria in 1832, when she described “two trees hung with lights and sugar ornaments” in her family’s drawing room on Christmas Eve.

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