Our fondness for all things shiny and blinky has grown to extremes in recent times, and the humble set of fairy lights is no exception. It's not that difficult to remember back to being a kid, where all you got was a set of tiny plain white bulbs (or coloured if you   were especially lucky) which had two settings: on and off (the latter suddenly being the only available setting when you came to use them the following Christmas). Now they have to be capable of fifty quite distinct lumiere shows, rivalling the UFO from the Close Encounters finale in their intricacy, power consumption and epilepsy-inducing qualities. Just plug 'em in and watch your power bill skyrocket! DP

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