Ahnatal/Marburg (dpa/lhe) - Waving Santa Clauses, glowing angels and flashing reindeer - despite rising energy prices, many Hessian residential buildings and gardens are to be lavishly decorated and illuminated again. Sascha Bärwald and Dominik Pieczko, for example, want their house in Ahnatal near Kassel to shine again. "We want to make people happy in hard times. In addition, the Christmas lights serve a good purpose," said Bärwald. The donations collected would benefit a local animal aid association.
Bärwald and Pieczko even plan to decorate their house with even more LED lights than last year. Back then, 70,000 lights created a Christmas atmosphere. Bärwald calculates the energy costs for this at around 140 to 150 euros. This year there are expected to be 80,000 to 90,000 lights. In order to compensate for the additional costs, according to Bärwald, the lighting should perhaps be switched off for a few hours at night.
Bernd Dziehel also wants to light up his house in the Waldtal district of Marburg again for Christmas this year. After all, the Marburger has been doing this since the 1970s. "We will definitely do the lighting again. It comes as it comes, I can't change it," said Dziehel. According to the homeowner, the main use is for LED lights, which are intended to save costs. Dziehel expects an additional cost of 100 euros. He could imagine installing less lighting. "We'll wait and see what happens, but we can't do without it."
