With Christmastime just around the corner, nearly one in five adults across the UK have already started their holiday shopping.

But while the festive season brings joy and excitement, there’s also added financial pressure from gift shopping, decorations, and holiday food, with the average Brit expected to spend £600 on Christmas-related activities and products this year.

On top of that, the recent Government announcement of a 10% increase in energy bills between October and December could add about £12 per month to the average household bill – making it more challenging for many to stay warm and festive.

For many, the holiday season wouldn’t be complete without Christmas lights to brighten up your home – whether it’s fairy lights on the tree, an LED Santa to greet people into your home, or light-up reindeer outside your house. But with rising energy costs this winter, it’s helpful to understand how much running those decorations might add to your bills, especially as each household varies depending on how many sets of lights you have on, the number of hours and how many days or weeks they’re up for.

Before you deck your halls, check your energy costs

UK Debt Expert analysed the energy consumption of 23 popular Christmas lights available from top retailers, both indoor and outdoor. Using a standard electricity cost of 24.5p per kWh,  the new price since the October increase, we calculated the potential running costs per hour, six-hour period, and day, based on an average daily use of six hours.

The research found that the most expensive light decorations are inflatables. If a family were to have a combination of Santa rope lights and three LED Santa inflatables dotted around outside of their house, this could cost families nearly £15 a month.

Our calculator found that families looking to save this festive season are best to fill the house with fairy lights from the 1st of December to the 5th of January with a monthly cost of 21p for one set. And having a few on your tree, on curtains or even around the kitchen table will cost less than £1 a month.

Budget-friendly Christmas light decorations 

At winter, there’s often a number of financial concerns that people face – whether it’s heating, socialising, or feeling like you need to spend more than you usually would to afford gifts.

To help you factor in extra energy costs associated with Christmas, we have created a Christmas Lights Calculator tool for 2024. To find out your expenditure, all you need to do is input the type of lights you’re likely to put up this year, how long you usually switch them on for, and the date you plan to put up your decorations to get a picture of how much they could cost over Christmas.

If you’re worried about the extra costs of Christmas this year, or fear that you might be falling into debt, you are not alone. Speak to a trusted friend or reach out to a personal finance advisor who can discuss possible debt solutions that are available to you.

Methodology 

We looked at 23 different Christmas light items available from Wilko, Argos and Amazon and looked at the wattage to understand how much energy they use.

We then used current kwh/hour costs of 24.5p for electricity to understand how much it will cost per hour to use each item, and created a number of scenarios to learn how much they would cost to run over time. All of the data used the end date of 5th January, as this is 12 days after Christmas.