IT’S A LIGHT CHRISTMAS
IT started as a few strings of lights to wind up a grumpy neighbour.
And 16 years and £10,000 later, Michael and Lyn Farnes’s Christmas light display has rather outlasted the joke. The couple spend hours every year putting up around 20,000 lights – many made by hand – on their home in Hove, East Sussex, to turn it into a winter wonderland.
Mrs Farnes, 53, said: ‘It all started with us putting up some icicle lights. Our former nextdoor neighbour had a little moan about it.
‘So the next year Michael put a few more lights up than before as a joke to wind him up and it carried on from there. I think he didn’t mind them in the end and found it funny.’
The thousands of bulbs cost them around £150 a year in electricity bills, and they also use the display to raise money for charity.