No Christmas Lights This Year…?

s with any God-fearing, gift-loving town, Greystones has always prided itself on its snazzy-but-classy Christmas lights.

This year though, for the first time since, eh, Christmas lights first began, the town’s main street may have to rely on a few blinky street lamps for 2016’s seasonal illumination.

It’s possible, of course, that Bunny Carr infiltrated a special meeting of the Greystones committee last night, but it’s far more likely that the tough decision all came down to the simple matter of moolah.

And the serious lack thereof.

Legend has it that each year is a bit of a struggle to get the main street’s Christmas lights signed, sealed and paid for, with a small percentage of forgetful businesses failing to pay their share. Alongside a slightly smaller percentage of tightarses who simply don’t want to pay.

It costs around €5,000 to get those lights up and sparkling for the festive season each year, and that in itself can be tricky enough amount to cover each time Santa comes around. The main sticking point this year is the simple fact that the Greystones Christmas lights are knackered, and a new set will set the town back somewhere in the region of €16,000.

Naturally, the Greystones shops aren’t too crazy about coughing up that many festive fifties. Trouble is, the Greystones committee feel pretty much the same way.

And so it came to pass at last night’s meeting that the Christmas lights were cancelled for this year.

Perhaps it’s all a bluff? Certainly, when it comes to Christmas lights, it would be fitting if each side was simply waiting to see if the other blinks first.

Either way, the switching on of the lights will go ahead on November 26th. Even if we don’t have lights to switch on.

And, worse, the Guide hasn’t been asked to MC again this year. Even though we were witty, charming and somewhat magical when we hosted last year’ssensational seasonal shindig.

If anyone out there has got a spare €16,000 sitting around that they don’t need, let us know. I’m sure we can spell out your name in Christmas lights all the way up the main street.

For now, we can only wait, and hope. And see who blinks first.

You can check out last year’s Christmas lights in action here, baby.