Family covers entire home in $10,000 worth of Christmas lights

By Elizabeth Hunter

Stunning pictures show Britain's most festive home covered in Christmas lights - which cost $10K and took two months to put up.

Daniel Goodyear spent weeks covering his house in St. Piran Close in Bodmin, Cornwall, with miles of decorations.

Daniel used cables and hundreds of plugs to cover the entire house and create the elaborate display, which grows bigger each year.

For the ninth year in a row, he has set up a 'Santa's Grotto' - where he will dress as Santa and dish out presents for free to neighborhood children, who queue down the street to see the display.

He says he doesn't know how many lights there are but he spends an additional £1000 each year on more lights and presents and sweets for children who visit.

That would make the cost of around 10K since he started.

Daniel, 29, a gardener, said: ''It started around 2016 - it was just a few lights, and now it's grown every year.

''I start in the beginning of September, and by October, I'll be out in the garden getting lights on the roof.

''I've got thousands of lights - I've never counted them, but I know there's a couple of hundred plugs.

''The grotto is open daily, with a Santa in there certain evenings - every Saturday until Christmas Eve.

''We get a few thousand visitors - I think last year, we went through 2,500 presents.

''Each year, we spend about $1,000 on new lights, and for the grotto this year, we've already spent $500 on sweets for the children.

''People love it - they always ask me if I'm doing the lights this year.

''I like putting smiles on people's faces. It's grown a lot larger and turned into a proper event.

''I think the Santa's Grotto really makes it - there's a lot of people who can't afford to take their children to a Santa, and we don't charge for it."

Meanwhile in Bristol, the Brailsford brothers in Brentry have launched their light display for charity for the 29th year in a row.

Brothers Lee and Paul bought a small neon tree in 1994 to place at the side of their mother's house - but the collection of lights quickly grew.

Now, their amazing display features over 200,000 individual lights - and has become one of the area's most popular holiday sights.

In Winterbourne Down, also in Bristol, Richard Iles has created his own light display for charity - this time raising funds for the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans.

Richard used over 300,000 Christmas lights in his display, and will continue to collect donations from visitors throughout the festive season.