Christmas has come early for some, as workers reportedly started putting up Oxford Street’s famous festive lights on Monday, with ‘scrooges’ saying it’s too soon.
Shoppers were surprised to see the first light being hung 90 days before Christmas, with one pointing out ‘it’s not even October yet!’ With the UK’s heatwave ending just a few weeks ago and energy prices soaring, some felt the installation to be premature.
However, the 5,000 star-shaped lights won’t be switched on until November 2, the company running the favoured attraction has revealed. After that, the stars will illuminate the famous high street every night throughout the Christmas period.
And in a bid to manage their energy consumption amid soaring bills and the UK’s cost of living crisis, they will be on for a shorter period of time than expected each day.
The stars will also be eco-friendlier than usual in another sense, as they are comprised of 300,000 LED lightbulbs which are 75 per cent more efficient than standard bulbs.
According to Secret London, overall, their energy consumption will be cut by two-thirds in comparison to last year.
They’re also made from recycled polymer, meaning they’re 100 per cent recyclable.
Hadas Kulcsar, Campaigns and Events Manager at New West End Company which put on the light display, said they were pleased to be bringing back the Christmas lights to the world-famous Oxford Street this year, with a unique twist to treat those who’ve really made a difference in 2022.
She said that for many, this is the first Christmas without restrictions post-COVID and they want to take the opportunity to help people get back to celebrating the spirit of Christmas together. However, in the present circumstances, it’s also vital that they lower their energy consumption and help to foster a more sustainable Christmas in line with their ambitions to make Oxford Street a leading sustainable district.
She said the decreased hours of the Christmas lights were a great step forward to accomplishing this.
Preparations are underway for the winter season already despite most of England and Wales still being declared to be in drought and several water companies’ hosepipe bans from the summer continuing.
A video posted on TikTok of workers putting up the lights, which was captioned ‘not them putting the lights up in Oxford Street when it’s not even October yet’ has racked up 85,000 views.
In other news, clocks continue to go forward, time does indeed march on, seasons really do change and life is extremely brief. Although it is excessively early. But after having lockdown after lockdown, let’s celebrate instead of whining about it, and even if we can’t afford Christmas at least we can go and see the illuminations.
People have been poor before but we still managed to have candle lights, it was called rationing, and it was tough in the past, but the good news is, when you’re on the floor with your candles, the only way is up, but I don’t suppose many people are in the festive spirit at the moment.
To be fair over the years I’ve become a bit of a Grinch, but not this year, this year is going to be different because everything has been so tragic with all the lockdowns and people being sick and dying. So, this year I’m going to act like a ten-year-old, and I’m truly going to put the greatest effort into feeling some cheer and goodwill towards others, although by January I’ll likely be dragging myself up Everest by my teeth. Once more into the breach my dear friends.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 