Mum defends putting up Christmas lights three and a half months early

While many people can’t resist digging out their Christmas decorations a few weeks early, one mum recently took her love of the festive season to a whole new level.

When she was sent a bundle of festive lights and decorations from online home and garden retailer Christow, Heidi Parrish couldn’t resist getting them up and sharing the results with her 50,000-strong Instagram following.

Heidi, from Grimsby, wrote on Instagram: “You know how much I love all seasons and any chance to buy beautiful decor and last Christmas I found such a lush place to buy lots of my outdoor lights from @christow_home and this year we’ve been lucky enough to work with them!

“How pretty do they look I cannot wait for Christmas and to enjoy all the festivities. Just remember only 3.5 months until Christmas!”

However, Heidi’s followers weren’t sure what to make of her sparkling home at this time of the year, with many questioning whether it is a little too early to be gearing up for Christmas.

One person commented: “Oh my you’ve said the C word already!!!!”, while another said: “You are crazy… garden looks lovely though”. 

A third wrote: “Noo… I’m not ready for summer to be over yet”. 

The mum-of-four has since defended her decision to put up the festive decorations so early, saying she simply wanted to make her children and other people ‘smile’. 

She told GrimsbyLive: “I wanted to decorate my home early as making my children and other people smile when they see the lights makes me think, ‘what is there not to love about getting into the Christmas spirit early on’.

“Especially after the pandemic, I think it made us all realise there is truly no time like the present so why not?”

Though Heidi did stress that, amid soaring energy costs, her lights won’t be getting switched on every day.

She added: “For now, I’m planning to only turn on the lights occasionally such as when we have friends over to ensure I’m not wasting energy and to keep costs to a minimum.”

And it seems Heidi isn’t the only person getting into the Christmas spirit a little early this year; Morrisons shoppers took to social media recently to express their shock and confusion over the premature arrival of mince pies and Christmas cakes in the supermarket.