People are only just discovering what the purpose of the red Christmas tree light is

Now that it's December you can safely start putting up the Christmas decorations without anybody judging you for kicking off the festive season too early.

While technically you can begin once Advent starts, which this year was 27 November, plenty of people use the beginning of December to mark the official starting point of Christmas.

With that in mind plenty of people will be digging through the Christmas decorations, discovering some of your favourite baubles are now broken and unspooling what feels like miles of lights to wrap around the tree.

And if you were wondering what the sole red spare fairy light is for, one TikToker has kindly explained:

One of the big early tests of decorating for Christmas is checking to see if the lights are still working after spending 11 months tucked away in a shed, cupboard or attic.

There's usually a bulb or two which stubbornly refuses to get into the holiday spirit, but luckily many sets of Christmas lights come with what looks like a spare bulb, even if the red light it gives off doesn't match up with the rest of them.

However, this red light actually has a very special purpose and people are only just discovering what that is.

Panther Media GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

TikToker VizNelly shared the discovery online, revealing that she'd just learned if you took out one of the regular bulbs in the Christmas lights and replaced it with the seemingly spare red one it'd have an effect.

While the distinctive red bulb stood out among the trail of white lights, putting in the extra bulb that came with the lights also produced a flickering effect, where some of the lights blinked on and off again.

Loads of people were absolutely amazed at this discovery, scarcely able to believe their eyes as they'd always '1000% thought they were spares'.

Someone else said they'd 'wasted so many years not knowing about this' and wondered why the boxes the lights came in never mentioned that the extra red bulb had a special purpose.

TikTok/@viznelly

While a few people seemed surprised that others were only just discovering this tidbit of information now, one person defended those new to the knowledge, writing 'as if it makes an oz of sense that putting a diff bulb in makes s**t blink'.

As for getting the Christmas decorations up, apparently the earlier you put them up around the house the happier you are.

People like things that make them happy, and research found that putting up the decorations in early November can 'extend the excitement' and give people more time living in a pleasantly festive environment.

Then again, some households start even earlier than that as one mum defended her choice to get into the festive spirit a whole four months before Christmas Day.

Even some of the supermarkets would think that was a bit too soon.

Topics: Christmas, TikTok, Weird

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker