'Tis the season to be jolly – and also, apparently, to be energy-guzzling wastemongers.

U.S. holiday lights use up more electricity than some countries do in an entire year, according to Phys.org and a recent blog post by the Center for Global Development.



A 2008 study for the U.S. Department of Energy found festive holiday lights consume 6.63 billion kilowatt hours of electricity every year, per the center.

Compare that with the electricity consumption of developing countries: El Salvador uses 5.35 billion kilowatt hours, while Ethiopia consumes 5.30 billion and Tanzania 4.81 billion, according to the center.