Your Christmas Lights Might Be Slowing down Your Wi-Fi

Now that Thanksgiving is safely tucked away as a gravy-stained memory, there are few things that can truly mark the sudden onset (shock) of the holidays quite like decorating your home and Christmas tree with strands upon strands of twinkle lights -- like Clark Griswold intended. But besides the mess of needles and enough sap to preserve a freaking elf in fossilized amber, there's a chance you could face another consequence of decking your halls: slow Wi-Fi.

As reported by Gizmodo, the lights could mess with your wireless router's signal and ultimately slow your connection, which really does not bode well for your plans to watch the Bill Murray Christmas Special on Netflix this weekend. Specifically, British telecommunications watchdog Ofcom suggests that, among other things, the lights you haphazardly placed near your router could cause electrical interference, and potentially, a noticeable slowdown. Granted, the presence of various other electronic devices near your router have been known to cause interference, but it appears that adding hundreds of twinkle lights to the equation increases your risk of getting a bad signal.

So, don't take any chances next time you're streaming Jingle All the Way -- that is to say, don't watch it at all.

Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email, and get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.

Tony Merevick is Cities News Editor at Thrillist and is actually shopping for Christmas tree decorations tonight after work. Send news tips to news@thrillist.com and follow him on Twitter @tonymerevick.