We all have the one house on the street that really goes all in on Christmas lights (if you’re reading this and can’t see any other house lit up as much as yours, you’re the one in your street).
And while in this part of the world, we tend not to go as crazy with the lights as Clark Griswold does in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, for people who do like to add a little sparkle with Christmas lights inside and outside the home to make things extra festive, you might want to know how to avoid some of the common fails/mistakes people make with lights; those little things can help keep costs down or help prevent a situation where the lights go out entirely.
Here is some advice from the AA team on how to avoid Christmas light fails.
Electricity cover
It is a trope in any Christmas movie that when someone goes to plug the lights in, the circuit will blow. Thankfully, we have the luxury of three-pong plugs to help reduce the risk of that happening in our home, but if you like to have a lot of Christmas lights hung up and plugged in, what can you do to avoid what the kids would a call a COLOSSAL FAIL?
Well, you get with AA Home Membership which has electricity failure cover included. It’s a great way to keep the home protected, especially at a time of year when you’re also more likely to see a boiler have issues or the likes of radiators show signs of leakage.
Out with the old & in with the new
Putting up the tree and getting the decorations out should be an exciting activity, which it is, until you remember that last year you crammed all the lights into the box and barely got it closed.
There was a stat published in the Irish Mirror earlier this year that “Dublin…spends €500,000” every year on their Christmas lights, and a lot of that goes into upgrading from old bulbs to LED lighting.
Scaling that down to your home, it’s estimated that 5m LED string lights you would hang up outside would cost you around €1 a month if on for six hours every evening. It really is a case of out with the old and in with the new when replacing lights. Thankfully, that means no longer having to check every single bulb to get a strip working again.
If you’re about to go shopping for new lights, read our guide on Christmas lights safety tips for helpful information.
Top to toe in tailbacks, I got red lights on the run
And we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the most important lights that get turned on earlier this time of year: car lights!
Whether you’re going to be making cross-country journeys to visit family for Christmas like Chris Rea, know you’ll be nipping around town to get presents, or have a million and one things to do on your Christmas list, don’t be that person getting flashed by oncoming drivers because you accidentally have your full beams on.
Get a refresher on How To Use Your Car Lights Correctly, and you’ll not have any Christmas light fails on the roads.
