Item #: SCP-024-DE-J
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: Containing SCP-024-DE-J is currently (unfortunately) unfeasible. Field agents embedded in all government institutions have to prevent SCP-024-DE-J-VS events from occurring between the states, if necessary by turning off the power.
Foundation personnel identified as being an instance of SCP-024-DE-J are prohibited from carrying Christmas ornaments or light sources during their stay. What these people do in private is up to them, it is their electricity bill…
SCP-024-DE-J instance in Osnabrück, Hellern district.
Description: SCP-024-DE-J is the designation given to a phenomenon that often starts in late November every year and can occasionally span until February. The anomaly manifests as the inexplicable desire of multiple persons to decorate their own homes with a multitude of Christmas ornaments and particularly lighting systems, beyond what is tolerable in terms of taste.
Apparently, said desire must be fulfilled regardless of own losses, the environment, and the global climate. For this purpose, affected persons build kilometers of fairy lights, glowing Christmas utensils, tons of candles and occasionally a reindeer with a red lamp strapped onto its snout. Due to the widely varying expertise concerning electronics among those affected, fires, short circuits, district-wide power outages, and temporay blindness may occur after turning on, with one unsolved case involving a power plant explosion. However, affected persons are rarely distracted from letting luminous decoration glow, even when the required power begins to melt the cables or neighbors take stand afront the house with pitchforks and torches.
Occasionally, a SCP-024-DE-J-SV event may arise between two SCP-024-DE-J instances, with both specimens attempting to surpass each other with the magnificence of their ornaments and their illuminating power. One party rarely leaves such a contest as winner. An early termination of the contest is more likely, be it through an engagement by code enforcement, disconnecting the power to the city's power plants, different technical difficulties, as outlined above, or angry backlash by other neighbors, involving willful destruction of the infuriating ornaments or extension of the light ornaments by additional usage of varying flammable liquids.
To date, the Foundation has not identified a single vector among those affected, as SCP-024-DE-J can seemingly manifest in every social class, partly affecting whole cities in the process, much to the residents' chagrin, who would like to sleep. Researchers of the Foundation agree, however, that an anomalous cause must be responsible, as, according to them, no one in their right mind would come up with the idea of harming their home in such a terrible way. Research is ongoing.
Foreword: The following consists of a rough summary of the first and only time when the German Foundation was affected by SCP-024-DE-J as a whole, immediately causing an SCP-024-DE-J-SV event.
<Begin recording>
17:00:19 Site-DE5 sets up a candle arch at the entrance, which is a tradition among miners in the Ore Mountains. A picture of the object is uploaded to the Foundation's intranet, which later proved to be a great mistake in retrospect.
17:29:21 Site-DE14 positions a 180 cm nutcracker decorated with fairy lights next to the driveway and properly reports about the modification of the site.
17:34:21 Site-DE1 believes to consider the nutcracker as an act of provocation, swiftly countering by lining up all available window decorations. Other sites, that follow along the happenings via the intranet, loose their cool.
17:52:00 Site-DE21 shines in the reflective gloss of around 4000 stored Christmas incense candles. Local entities of demonic nature begin to scream in agony and occasionally vomit candy canes, cookies, and mandarin oranges.
18:04:10 Site-DE9 masks several searchlights with red tracing paper and so generates a red-white light show. Due to the site's location, the efforts remain inside a pocket dimension without attention, in Bielefeld for good measure.
18:15:10 Site-DE15 activates a construction consisting of around 4 km fairy lights connected in series. Staff of the AUDI plant directly adjacent express confusion when the power suddenly goes out.
18:21:13 Site-DE9 also installs fairy lights, but for lack of light bulbs resorts to SCP-282-DE, among other things. A containment breach remains absent, as all instances of SCP-282-DE-A, due to the luminous intensity of the system, are unable to leave the shadows of objects they crawled from. One of the instances is observed occasionally trying to wave with the shadow version of a flag, probably to signalize capitulation. An attempt also integrate SCP-086-DE into the light assemble with two fireproof angel wings failed due to lacking cooperativeness of the anomaly.
18:45:00 Site-DE10 arranges multiple Christmas trees and festive light figures. The lamps used herein are experimental prototypes, intended to for tactical flashlights and lasers. After implementation, approximately 1200 luminous bodies immediately do justice to their year-long research efforts. Several personnel have to be treated due to glare, while multiple animals start up from hibernation in surprise.
18:45.54 Site-DE11 reports of the creation of a miniature star inside Site-DE10. Earthbound sites cannot confirm the reports due to lacking heat.
19:12:51 Site-DE4 lets all instances of SCP-150-DE march up and equips each of them with a LP-X series laser-projector, which is among the world's most powerful illuminants. The site's facade withstands the projection of the Star of David for around twelve minutes, before beginning to melt under matte glow.
19:41:04 Site-DE11 reports the reception of a message from the Theianic colonies near-Earth, who complain about the extreme light disturbance.
20:01:12 Site-DE3 surfaces luminescent, radioactive material and crafts a gingerbread face on the helipad from it. Speculaas staggered with iodine are being distributed.
20:07:32 Technicians from Site-DE23 register that, despite the inability to express emotions, the computer AI KAI in Site-DE2 has apparently become depressed, and plays Silent Night through the speakers. Upon request, the computer states that he would like to be hung in tinsel and fairy lights, so he "can also take part". Two technicians are being dispatched to bring Christmas decorations, while the communication center attempts to comfort the AI with funny Christmas pictures.
20:15:32 Using scuba divers and underwater welders, the entrance tower to Site-DE25 is being extended by several "branches" featuring headlights, thereby giving it the appearance of a Christmas tree. The lamps are lighting fixtures designed for deep-sea expeditions. As a direct result, Site-DE25 becomes visible from space.
20:34:32 A huge EMP emitted by a large asteroid in the Cuiper belt hits Central Europe, rendering all electronic devices useless.
20:34:42 While at his night shift in Site-DE12, Dr. Ore, in fright of the sudden power outage, hits his thumb with a hammer. He stretches his red glowing finger aloft and declares himself the winner of the contest inside the empty hall.
