Christmas market in Mainz, Germany.
Andreas Arnold/picture alliance via Getty Images
Christmas lights in Germany should be turned off to cut energy use this winter, per an environmental association.
The director said there should be one lit-up Christmas tree for each community.
Russia’s crackdown on gas supplies to Europe has led to energy-saving measures on the continent.
Germans should turn off their Christmas lights this winter to save energy as Russia clamps down on gas flows to Europe, according to non-profit environmental organization, Deutsche Umwelthilfe.
German newspaper Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RDN) first reported the news.
Christmas lights in houses, apartments, and cities should be unplugged this year, Deutsche Umwelthilfe’s Federal Managing Director Jürgen Resch told Insider in a statement.
The suggestion was not only in light of the energy shortage following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but also for climate protection reasons, Resch said.
“One solution could be the reduction of Christmas lighting to one illuminated tree per community,” Resch said.
The private lighting sector alone consumes more than 600 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year, which is as much as a medium-sized city with 400,000 inhabitants uses in one year, Resch said.
This Christmas could end up being very special if people make conscious decisions to give up certain things, save energy, and show solidarity, Resch told Insider.
Germany isn’t the only country that may go dark this festive season. Austria is expected to delay the lights turning on at its Christmas markets in its capital, Vienna, per Bloomberg.
The measures come as Russia cuts gas supplies to Europe through the Nord Stream pipeline in retaliation against Western sanctions imposed on Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine.
The resulting energy crisis has forced European governments, banks, and other businesses to try to reduce power consumption ahead of winter.
Italians were urged to cook their pasta with the stove turned off to reduce energy bills, while Finland has told people to spend less time in saunas and showers to conserve power. German bakeries switched their lights off in protest of surging bills at the same time as Britons were chucking out $29,000 vintage stoves to combat sky-high energy costs, per Bloomberg.
How are you being impacted by rising energy costs? Has the energy crisis affected your business? Get in touch with this reporter via email [email protected] or Twitter DM.