EDF is gifting customers free electricity to help households enjoy the festivities
No lighty, no likey: Brits set to use 7× more electricity on Christmas Day
New research from EDF[i] reveals that households celebrating Christmas are estimated to use around 65 kWh[ii] of electricity on Christmas Day alone - seven times the typical daily consumption of 8-10 kWh[iii]. That’s enough to watch Love Actually back-to-back 115 times**.
Christmas lights are the star of the show this year. 87% of UK households are set to brighten their festivities with Christmas lights, with homes lit up for almost eight hours on the day itself. The average household switches on around 243 LED lights, adding up to more than five billion twinkling lights across the UK[iv], enough to outshine Blackpool Illuminations over 5,000 times.
One in three (31%) households will decorate the outside of their homes, and one in seven (14%) of those celebrating Christmas will truly “go all out” with their light displays. For communities across the UK, one in five (20%) enjoy visiting their neighbourhood’s light displays and soaking up the festive cheer.
Cardiff steals the Christmas crown, with a whopping 71% of households decking out their homes with outdoor lights. Blackpool isn’t far behind, with more than half of residents (57%) joining the festive frenzy. Meanwhile, Manchester (13%), York (10%) and Warrington (8%), have the least residents lighting up their exteriors.
What are the top electricity powered activities at Christmas?
As Christmas Day unfolds, UK households are buzzing with electricity powered festive activities. Brits are tuning in to watch the King’s Speech and back-to-back Christmas films (93%), cooking the Christmas dinner in the oven (91%), switching household lights on and off (91%), boiling the kettle for copious cups of tea and coffee (90%), as well as charging phones and other devices (88%).
The vast majority will be celebrating Christmas, with 76% cooking a traditional Christmas dinner with classic roast potatoes (75%), turkey (67%), pigs in blankets (57%), stuffing (54%) and carrots (51%). The most divisive addition was the Yorkshire pudding with a 50/50 split on whether they should be included. Once a Christmas staple, Brussels sprouts are falling out of favour with only 38% dishing them up as part of the festive feast.
Nearly a litre of gravy is served in the average household, though 1 in 20 choose to go without. Leicester tops the list of gravy skippers, followed by Carlisle and Cambridge. At the other end of the scale, families in Durham are the biggest gravy gluggers as households plan to consume more than 1.5 litres of gravy on the day, with Coventry and Manchester close behind.
EDF customers can use electricity “on the house” on Christmas Day
This year, EDF is gifting customers electricity “on the house” with eight hours of free electricity from 8am-4pm on Christmas Day. The free hours are automatically available to all customers who sign up for January’s Sunday Saver challenge before 11:59pm on 24th December. Customers simply need a working electricity smart meter that provides half-hourly meter readings to be eligible[v].
Rich Hughes, Director of Retail at EDF, said: “Christmas is one of the most joyful days of the year, but also one of the busiest for household electricity use. We want our customers to enjoy the festivities for free, which is why we are offering eight hours of free electricity on Christmas Day to those who sign-up to our Sunday Saver challenge. It is a simple, practical way to help households offset their festive electricity use and start earning more free electricity in the new year with Sunday Saver.”
More than 220,000 customers have already benefitted from EDF’s Sunday Saver initiative since it began, earning more than 13 million hours of free electricity and saving over £3.4m million on bills.
Find out more and sign-up to January’s Sunday Saver challenge. Customers who have already signed up for December’s Sunday Saver challenge will automatically get the eight hours of free electricity on Christmas Day.
[i] Research among a nationally representative survey of 2,000 UK adults, conducted by 3Gem in November 2025.
[ii] Kwh calculated via watts per appliance from National Energy Action (NEA). KwH calculation worked out as follows:
- From the 2,000 respondents who celebrate Christmas, each household’s average electricity usage was calculated by multiplying the NEA’s average wattage for each appliance by the average number of hours used on Christmas Day.
- Formula: kWh = (appliance wattage ÷ 1000) × hours used
- Love Actually: average TV consumption on Christmas Day (5.7 hours) ÷ film length (2.25 hours) = 2.53 viewings. 2.53 viewings = 1.425 kWh ÷ 2.53 = 0.563 kWh per viewing. Total Christmas Day kWh usage (65 kWh) ÷ one viewing of Love Actually (0.563 kWh) = 115.5 times.
[iv] Christmas lights: 28.6 million UK households × 88% celebrating Christmas × 87% using Christmas lights × 242.5 LEDs per household = 5.3 billion LEDs. Blackpool comparison: 5.3 billion UK Christmas LEDs ÷ 1 million Blackpool Illuminations lamps = 5,300 times more lights.
[v] To get free electricity on Christmas Day, eligibility and T&Cs apply. The offer is open to EDF customers only, and a smart meter is required. Already signed up to the December challenge? Customers will automatically get this free electricity on Christmas Day.
About EDF
EDF is driving the transition towards An Electric Britain – a secure, affordable, low-carbon future for everyone. As Britain’s biggest generator of zero carbon electricity, we are investing more than £100 million weekly in Britain’s electricity infrastructure. We supply millions of customers with electricity and help homes and businesses switch to electricity for heating, transport and industrial processes.
We operate five nuclear power stations and more than 35 onshore wind farms and three offshore wind farms. Since 2009, EDF has invested almost £9 billion in the nuclear fleet to improve reliability and extend station lifetimes. The five generating stations currently supply about 12% of the UK’s electricity demand.
EDF is building the UK's nuclear renaissance with the construction of a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C. We are a minority investor (12.5%) in and major supplier to a replica plant at Sizewell C in Suffolk. Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C will provide low carbon electricity to meet 14% of UK demand and power around 12 million homes. EDF Group companies Framatome and Arabelle Solutions have a presence in the UK and manufacture critical equipment such as reactor pressure vessels and turbines.
EDF is enabling its 5 million customers, both in business and at home, to choose electric solutions that save cash and carbon, whether it is buying an electric car, generating and storing electricity, selling energy back to the grid or installing solar panels or a heat pump. In 2025, EDF’s Customers business was ranked as one of the Sunday Times’s Best Place to Work.
It is also one of the UK’s leading developers of renewable energy through EDF power solutions UK and Ireland. We have more than 2GW of renewable generation in operation and over 10GW in construction, planning and development across a range of technologies including onshore and offshore wind, solar and battery storage.
We are one of the largest suppliers to British business and a leading supplier of innovative energy solutions that are helping businesses become more energy independent. In addition, the company’s energy services business, Dalkia, one of the UK and Ireland’s largest technical service providers.
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