The eco mob is determined to extinguish the light of Christmas
Did I ever mention just how much I appreciate an illuminated Santa stuck onto the front of a suburban semi? Twinkling penguin inflatables? Ooh yes please. And let’s not forget those LED sleighs with a full complement of luminous prancing reindeer currently gracing the nation’s cul-desacs. You know, the ones manufactured in District One of Yiwu International Trade City, aka the world’s “Christmas Village”, that can be seen from outer space. Very much like the Great Wall of China, ironically. But more fun, more festive and a lot more inflammatory.
Not literally. More in the sense of cultural provocation. How the eco-warriors lambast such gaudy cheer. Too much electricity! Meanwhile, the woke brigade loathe their unsustainability. Bring back hemp and paper chains! And now our purse-lipped wildlife custodians have had a pop at Rudolf et al for the impact of excessive light pollution on invertebrates’ sex lives.
Crikey. Before I continue my encomium in praise of seasonal tidings tat, let me conjure up the old diplomatic adage; the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Got that? Because although it pains me aesthetically (and I risk being summarily rejected from the Nicky Haslam chapter of the Immanuel Kant fellowship for being egregiously common) if I have to choose a side – and self evidently I do – then I stand with Frosty.
Not just Frosty, either; neon holly, shrill Santa Stop Here signs, flashing nativities. The works. Why? Because sniping and carping at individuals whose only real crime is a lapse in taste is as misplaced as it is mean-spirited; real world solutions to our planetary problems must be hammered out in the political arena not the personal realm. But do-gooders have a habit of seeing the bad in everyone else. Even if – especially if – the putative miscreants have the temerity to appear conspicuously jolly while elaborately decking their halls.
Hence their houses have been pejoratively dubbed Ho Ho Ho-mes. These extraordinary, extravagant megawatt displays typically attract visitors and donations alike; Helen and John Attlesey’s des res in Soham, Cambridgeshire, is famously adorned with thousands of eco-friendly LED lights for charity. Last year, it raised more than £25,000 for charities including Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, which saved their grandson’s life after he developed epilepsy aged six. But earlier this month a cross (some would say furious)party group of politicians called on them and similarly exuberant householders to switch the lights off.
LED lights use only 10 per cent of the power of a conventional string of incandescent Christmas lights yet the churls in charge seem determined to clamp down on all expression of good cheer. Now the charity Buglife has added to the chorus of disapproval by warning that those strings of icicles merrily twinkling from the eaves are affecting the population levels of insects, the activities of nocturnal fauna and even the flowering periods of urban flora. Talk about jingle bell-shaming; Scrooge himself would be hardpressed to snuff out the spirit of Christmas more comprehensively.
Truthfully, not everyone celebrates in the same way; some are all about Joy to the World; others prefer a Silent Night. Either way, casting aspersions on those who simply wish to brighten our bleak midwinter is a lamentably low low blow against the Ho Ho Ho. READ MORE at telegraph.co.uk/opinion