Dad spent over $2,500 to deck out house with 60,000 Christmas tree lights

By Hamish Morrison via SWNS

A festive dad spent around $2,600 (£2,000) decking out his new house with 60,000 Christmas tree lights to celebrate having a proper blowout this year.

Iain Fleming, 36, decorates his home with thousands of lights every year, spending around an extra $264 (£200) on electricity during the festive period for Santas, sleighs, Christmas trees, snowmen, baubles and candy canes.

“The house becomes for family and friends the go-to house for Christmas celebrations for the whole month," said the dad-of-three from Hamilton, Scotland.

Iain has around 60,000 bulbs on the go, plugged into 137 sockets.

He spreads out the huge costs of the display throughout the year, even paying more for his monthly electricity bills so he’s not hit extra hard in December.

“I started buying back in January," he said.

“I bought stuff while the lights were still on last year, in the lead up to Christmas and at the January sales. When I see something pop up on Facebook, eBay or Amazon I buy it.

“If I’m spending around £40 or £50 on a light at one time, it’s alright but if it was all in one go it would be too much. Every year when I take them out of storage around ten percent are faulty so I’ve always got enough to replace and go bigger.

“Because it’s LED the bills go up around £200 but I pay extra all year to cover the increase in December so it doesn’t hurt me then."

Iain Fleming's house. (Katielee Arrowsmith via SWNS)

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He has been doing it for around 13 years and nearly 1,000 people attended a switch-on on November 14.

"At the switch-on night there were around 800 to 900 people there," Iain said.

“The whole street was full.

“It was the most I’ve ever had at a switch-on ever. It was really good to see people back to normality."

The family, including Ellie, 13, Hollie, 11, and Lucy, six, moved into a bigger house this year meaning Iain splashed out on some new decorations.

“We’ve added a lot bigger things this year, like a huge six-meter tall Christmas tree," said catering managerIain.

“That alone has around 5,000 lights. It’s taller than the house.

“It’s the first year in my new house, so I made my all neighbors aware of what was going on and they’ve all been very supportive."

This year, Iain is donating to the Les Hoey DreamMaker Foundation, which gives children with life-threatening illnesses experiences like meeting their celebrity heroes and days out.

At this year’s opening night, Iain raised $1,066 (£806) and has raised around $1,455 (£1,100) in total so far.

To donate, visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/iainchristmaslights?