Revisit happy Christmases past at the flick of a switch

Mesmerising, magical and able to turn a rudimentary room into a mystical realm, Rab loves a light, or better still, lights, used well – especially so when a change of colour and time travel is involved...

I have seen the light, readers. Indeed, in this week’s bombshell opening sentence, I have underestimated the subject matter, for I have seen… the lights.

Oh, the lights. How I love them. I don’t mean the Northern Lights, which I also love, though I haven’t seen them for years. No, the lights under advisement this week are indoor lights, lots of them, with their most agreeable aspect being that they change colour.

Generally speaking, when watching a movie at home, I like to switch off all the lights. But now I keep four of the little coloured tea-lights on and sometimes,when the film is finished,

I sit and watch them change colour, throwing light and shapes on to the wall behind them.

You will have guessed that these are electronic lights, powered by teeny-wee batteries.

The ever-changing colours are mesmerising and magical, and I guess the reason they give me such a frisson of joy is that they remind me of a present my parents gave me one Christmas.

It was a torch whose light changed colour and, in the darkness of the middle of the night when my brother and I had awoken excitedly to open our presents, I shifted the beam around the room and thought it was the best thing ever.

Friends today observe that I am a man of simple pleasures – a fish supper, proper knee-length socks, caviar on my yacht (joke!) – and so I guess that, as the poet put it, the child was father to the man.

And, boy, was I so glad to find these lights online. I don’t know if you have come across this sort of thing. The first thing you have to do is go to the shops and buy a computer.

Then you find an electronic shop on the machine and order your desired item online. Some time later (quite a lot of time where I live, right enough), a man in a van delivers them.

It’s wonderful. As for the wee lights, you can buy whole bags of them, and they last a long time.

I think I’ve some in every room, including the bedroom where I sometimes put them on last thing at night, and the guitar room, where they help to distract my attention from the tuneless racket.

I should say that I love candles, too, but it’s difficult to find the paraffin-free ones that don’t pose a risk to health.

I do light a candle now and then, but usually just on special occasions, such as when I have a bath once a year.

Nothing like it, accompanied by a bit of Debussy or Ravel, for creating a bit of atmosphere as you bathe.

But candles, as far as I know, can’t change colour. And the leccy lights last longer, as in months.

They come on at the flick of a switch, and turn a plain, ordinary room into a mystical realm.

You say: “You are over-egging the pudding there, old boy.” Well, maybe. But there really is something very pleasant about light well used.

And if it takes you back to happy Christmases long ago, when life seemed cosier and happier and more simple, then what’s not to like?

Let there be lights, readers. And let them change colour.