Martin Lewis explains how much it really costs to use your Christmas lights

Ho-Ho-Ho gang and a very Merry Christmas to you all, especially those of you who've already done the best bit of the festive season and put the tree up.

There's nothing like sticking on a Christmas album and making merry with the tinsel, baubles and lights.

Remember to be on the lookout for the red bulb in your lights, as if you use that one it can make the rest of them flash on and off again appealingly.

As for Martin Lewis' contribution, as you can probably guess he's weighed in on the cost of having a tree draped in lights on all December.

This isn't the first time the money saving expert has done this, and perhaps it'll become a regular Christmas fixture as time goes by.

Getty Stock Photo

Anyhow, Britain's favourite financial expert was back on ITV for an episode of The Martin Lewis Money Show where he told viewers that the cost of having the Christmas lights on would depend if you had a string of LEDs or incandescent bulbs.

He said: "This is my rule of thumb on how much your Christmas lights cost to run. If they're LED, I've worked it out, it's roughly a penny per 12 hours per 100 bulbs. Okay. If they're incandescent it's 13 times that.

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"So if you're worried about the cost of your Christmas lights, if you've got LEDs up, LEDs are perfect.

"You can run them for six hours a day for a month and it's 15p, so you don't have to worry too much about the energy bill, it's more if they're incandescent."

The show explained that it'd cost you only 1p to run a string of LED lights for 12 hours, while the incandescent bulbs would cost about 13p for 12 hours.

ITV

Lewis explained that if you stuck on your Christmas lights for six hours a day for the entire month then you'd be spending only around 15p on LEDs while it'd be about £1.94 for a string of incandescent lights.

Neither of those options is particularly pricey, so even if you're looking for ways to save money this Christmas it won't do you much good to switch the lights off.

Of course you'll want to make sure the lights still work after being coiled up in a cupboard all year, and you should be careful not to get a dodgy set of lights that could lead to you getting an electric shock.

Topics: Martin Lewis, Money, Christmas, UK News

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