Christmas is a magical time of year for most people, with the glitter and sparkle bringing joy to thousands; however, if you’re worried about your energy bills, Martin Lewis has some vital advice
The festive season is just around the corner and, while it offers a lot of joy, sparkle and twinkling lights, it also brings with it a whole load of expense. Aside from the presents and food, Christmas is a time when many of us use more electricity due to lights, decorations and all sorts of gadgets being plugged in more often.
However, according to Martin Lewis, making one simple change could make a big difference to your energy bills in December. All you need to do is tweak your lights to save some money and make your Christmas less expensive than it needs to be.
It’s worth knowing as we head further into the festive season. After all, back last year, it was revealed Brits spend way over £100 to host Christmas at home as it is.
Previously, money saving guru Kat Saves alerted people to the handy piece of advice. If you’re worried about how much it costs to light up your home at Christmas, there are some things you need to know.
According to Martin Lewis, if you have LED lights at home, you probably have nothing to worry about. Otherwise, you may want to think about making some changes.
Twinkling fairy lights are a popular choice for Christmas trees, hallways and even across roofs and gardens as people start to get into the festive mood. However, the type of lights you use can really make a difference.
Martin alerted viewers to this during previous years when he opened up about the subject on The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on ITV1. He advised that, despite what some people may think, Christmas lights are actually very cheap to run, permitting you have the right type of lights.
He explained LED lights are low-cost to run and won’t make a big difference to your energy bills at the end of the month; however, the same can’t be said for old fashioned incandescent lights if you have a lot of them.
At the time, Martin explained (based on the energy cap back in 2024): “How much do Christmas lights cost to run? Here’s my rule of thumb. LED lights, 1p per 12 hours per 100 bulbs. Incandescents, 12 times as much, so 12p per 12 hours per 100 bulbs.
“So, if you run them for six hours, per 100 bulbs, then it’s roughly 15p a month on LED, £1.80 on incandescents. LED [are] a lot cheaper, really not that expensive to run. If you want your sparkles, you can have your sparkles even with my blessing this year.”
Incandescent bulbs are the old style of light bulbs which were banned in 2016. However, if you have an old hand-me-down set of lights, they could be using the old incandescent style, which are more expensive to run.
In 2016, the EU set out a timetable to withdraw incandescent bulbs from sale to save energy costs. It’s still legal to buy existing stock but, once they’re all gone, it’s impossible to buy more because they no longer make them.
If you’ve bought a new set of lights since 2016, you don’t have to worry as these will be the new, cheaper to run lights. Even though Martin’s predictions were based on last year’s energy cap, it’s still considered cheap to run LED lights.
On average, it’s predicted they typically range from costing about 15p to £2.16 for the festive season, but this obviously depends on when you put up your tree and how often it’s lit up. For example, a 1,000-bulb set running for eight hours a day for a month might cost under £1, while a larger outdoor display could cost closer to £6.78 for the season.
On social media, one person was relieved, writing: “Well, that’s one good bit of news.” Another added: “We’ve swapped all our actual lights to LEDs, and they cost pennies to run.
“They last ages. We’ve had our current ones for eight years.” A third also replied: “So thankful I saw this. My daughter begs me to put Christmas lights on and it kills me saying no.”
