Festive lights on bike - legality?

[Kim]

Slightly OT (but only slightly) - when did blue come to be a Christmas colour?

It isn't.  It's an LED colour.

While I remember spending a silly number of quids on a blue LED when they first appeared in the Mraplin catalogue just for the "ooh, shiny" factor, the 90s have been over for a while now, and the sooner people stop using BLUE LEDs everywhere where more sensible colours would suffice, the better.

[Biggsy]

Red is only a Christmas colour because of Coca Cola.  Father Christmas was green before Coke.

(This might be a myth, but it's a good story anyway).

[Peter]

@ all anti-blues

+ n (where n is huge)

Our local village tree (council-provided) is blue-lit only.  Other suburbs also have plain colours, either, green, blue or white.  When we complained a couple of years ago, we were actually told, "You should have complained before we put them up", i.e. before we had even seen them!  They were always multi-coloured before that, which was correctly blue, white, red, green and yellow.  NB - not orange or pink, either!

Black is also not a Christmas colour, nor is purple, though these were the predominant shades of tinsel with which the kids decorated their instruments for our shows....aaaagh....!

[Kim]

Wait, black and purple tinsel?  Maybe I'll have to rethink this whole humbug thing...

[Peter]

Wait, black and purple tinsel?  Maybe I'll have to rethink this whole humbug thing...

Don't you dare!  Any time but Christmas!

[Canardly]

I will be out tomorrow wearing my silly bah humbug flashing hat. Toots I must be bonkers.

[rogerzilla]

Now that warm white LED strings are available for the same price as "ice blue" ones (which look like bike lights and are cold and horrible), there's no excuse.  We have a tree with them at work and I had to look really closely to see they weren't incandescents.

I'd rather like a warm white bike light for better visibility in the wet (the bluish lights are swallowed up by wet roads in a way halogens never were).  I wonder if there is an efficiency loss, though, e.g. from less efficient phosphors?

[Wowbagger]

The use of blue christmas lights was as a result of an order by Margaret Thatcher to her party faithful.

[rogerzilla]

Damn - I live in a Tory village.  If anyone has friends in the Kremlin, I can supply an ICBM address.

[teethgrinder]

It still isn't IMO. Christmas colours for me are red and green, also gold and silver. Just MO though.

You aren't getting confused with Karma Chameleon by Culture Club are you?

I don't see any point in saying what is Christmassy or not. It's several festivals rolled into one anyway and interpreted in so many ways.

All these pages about the legality of putting some decorative lights on a bike and still no apparent certain answer. Could a couple of low powered blue lights really be misconstrued as a dazzlingly bright blue flasher from an emergenct service vehicle? I don't think so.
I doubt that the police would be interested unless you're making a real nuisance of yourself.
I say JFDI.

Wait, black and purple tinsel?  Maybe I'll have to rethink this whole humbug thing...

Gothmass FTW.

[Cunobelin]

Interesting comments on why blue LEDs here

[Wonky]

Linky no worky - edit - fixed

[Ashaman42]

I agree that blue lights on a bike wouldn't likely be mistaken for proper blue lights.

But I don't like them as household decorations, when reflecting off other house/car windows they often (to me) look like reflected emergency lights and it bugs me till I work out there isn't actually anything coming.

[Cudzoziemiec]

It still isn't IMO. Christmas colours for me are red and green, also gold and silver. Just MO though.

You aren't getting confused with Karma Chameleon by Culture Club are you?

Christmas would be easy if the colours were like my dreams...

Hmmm. You've ruined my evening, TG.   

[Peter]

Red is only a Christmas colour because of Coca Cola.  Father Christmas was green before Coke.

(This might be a myth, but it's a good story anyway).

Slight adjustment of word order:  Father Christmas is red because of Coca-cola.  Red is a Christmas colour because of Holly, which (just) pre-dates Coca-Cola. cf The Holly Bears A Berry As Red As The Blood...  Before that of course it was a pagan colour!

(Like the new avatar!)

[Regulator]

Red is only a Christmas colour because of Coca Cola.  Father Christmas was green before Coke.

(This might be a myth, but it's a good story anyway).

Slight adjustment of word order:  Father Christmas is red because of Coca-cola. Red is a Christmas colour because of Holly, which (just) pre-dates Coca-Cola. cf The Holly Bears A Berry As Red As The Blood...  Before that of course it was a pagan colour!

(Like the new avatar!)

No he's not.  It's an urban myth - and one encouraged by Coca Cola.

Red and white are the traditional colours of bishops' vestments (St Nicholas being Bishop of Myra).  And the modern day Santa image was actually developed by Thomas Nast, in Harper magazine, some 40+ years before the Coca Cola advertising campaign kicked off in the 1930s.

[Cudzoziemiec]

And St Nicholas (Santa) has, of course, already delivered presents to good boys and girls. Last Tuesday. Father Christmas will be arriving in 12 days' time. Lucky kids. 

[Andrij]

Red is only a Christmas colour because of Coca Cola.  Father Christmas was green before Coke.

(This might be a myth, but it's a good story anyway).

Slight adjustment of word order:  Father Christmas is red because of Coca-cola. Red is a Christmas colour because of Holly, which (just) pre-dates Coca-Cola. cf The Holly Bears A Berry As Red As The Blood...  Before that of course it was a pagan colour!

(Like the new avatar!)

No he's not.  It's an urban myth - and one encouraged by Coca Cola.

Red and white are the traditional colours of bishops' vestments (St Nicholas being Bishop of Myra).  And the modern day Santa image was actually developed by Thomas Nast, in Harper magazine, some 40+ years before the Coca Cola advertising campaign kicked off in the 1930s.

Example

[Biggsy]

Doesn't look like the solid bright scarlet we associate with modern Father Christmas and Coca-Cola.

I suspect there might be a grain of truth the Coke theory.  Ok, some red, was used ages before, but then Coke made it much bolder.  No?

[Andrij]

Doesn't look like the solid bright scarlet we associate with modern Father Christmas and Coca-Cola.

I suspect there might be a grain of truth the Coke theory.  Ok, some red, was used ages before, but then Coke made it much bolder.  No?

That's just one that caught my eye.  Check Gewgel Images - lost of variation of shades of red.

[Biggsy]

Ok, that's moderately convincing.    So Coca-Cola had nothing to do with the version of the paricular Father Christmas or Santa look we're all so familiar with today?

[Peter]

@ Andrij

I'm very happy to be wrong!  Thanks for the correction

[Cudzoziemiec]

Red is only a Christmas colour because of Coca Cola.  Father Christmas was green before Coke.

(This might be a myth, but it's a good story anyway).

Slight adjustment of word order:  Father Christmas is red because of Coca-cola. Red is a Christmas colour because of Holly, which (just) pre-dates Coca-Cola. cf The Holly Bears A Berry As Red As The Blood...  Before that of course it was a pagan colour!

(Like the new avatar!)

No he's not.  It's an urban myth - and one encouraged by Coca Cola.

Red and white are the traditional colours of bishops' vestments (St Nicholas being Bishop of Myra).  And the modern day Santa image was actually developed by Thomas Nast, in Harper magazine, some 40+ years before the Coca Cola advertising campaign kicked off in the 1930s.

Example

St Nicholas the Miracleworker, if I've understood correctly.

Myra - is that the same place currently know as Izmir? I happen to have been talking to someone from Izmir today, but not a Nicholas!

[Andrij]

Red is only a Christmas colour because of Coca Cola.  Father Christmas was green before Coke.

(This might be a myth, but it's a good story anyway).

Slight adjustment of word order:  Father Christmas is red because of Coca-cola. Red is a Christmas colour because of Holly, which (just) pre-dates Coca-Cola. cf The Holly Bears A Berry As Red As The Blood...  Before that of course it was a pagan colour!

(Like the new avatar!)

No he's not.  It's an urban myth - and one encouraged by Coca Cola.

Red and white are the traditional colours of bishops' vestments (St Nicholas being Bishop of Myra).  And the modern day Santa image was actually developed by Thomas Nast, in Harper magazine, some 40+ years before the Coca Cola advertising campaign kicked off in the 1930s.

Example

St Nicholas the Miracleworker, if I've understood correctly.

Myra - is that the same place currently know as Izmir? I happen to have been talking to someone from Izmir today, but not a Nicholas!

St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia.  Myra is now the Turkish city of Demre.

[Adrian]

Red is only a Christmas colour because of Coca Cola.  Father Christmas was green before Coke.

(This might be a myth, but it's a good story anyway).

Slight adjustment of word order:  Father Christmas is red because of Coca-cola. Red is a Christmas colour because of Holly, which (just) pre-dates Coca-Cola. cf The Holly Bears A Berry As Red As The Blood...  Before that of course it was a pagan colour!

(Like the new avatar!)

No he's not.  It's an urban myth - and one encouraged by Coca Cola.

Red and white are the traditional colours of bishops' vestments (St Nicholas being Bishop of Myra).  And the modern day Santa image was actually developed by Thomas Nast, in Harper magazine, some 40+ years before the Coca Cola advertising campaign kicked off in the 1930s.

Example

St Nicholas the Miracleworker, if I've understood correctly.

Myra - is that the same place currently know as Izmir? I happen to have been talking to someone from Izmir today, but not a Nicholas!

St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia.  Myra is now the Turkish city of Demre.

That was much better when I misread it as "Archbishop of Myra in Lycra"