Man spends over £10K creating spectacular Christmas light display at his home
There's nothing that brings festive cheer quite like Christmas lights – and one enthusiastic father-of-two has put on quite the dazzling display in his garden this year.
Nigel Watkinson has spent £10K on creating an incredible 'Santa's garden' at his home, which is illuminated by more than 30,000 bulbs.
The electrician, 56, who lives in Scarborough, North Yorkshire has raised more than £20K for charity since starting to draw in the public with his festive decorations two decades ago.
Each year he has spent around £500 on lights, but for 2022 he parted with an additional £700 and was also gifted more worth the same amount.
This means that there will 260 sets of lights illuminating his garden, which measures 40 metres by 20 metres.
Fortunately, his electricity supplier EON has agreed to waive Watkinson's £100 electricity bills for the month.
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This means that as much money as possible that is raised from visitors – estimated to be 2,000 people this year – will go to the local St Catherine's Hospice.
Of the practicalities which come with putting up so many lights, he says: "It is all really low wattage. I started putting them up in August.
"I work on it every weekend and had an opening last weekend for people who donated lights. It stays up until Christmas Eve and then I spend all of January taking them down."
Describing the lights, Watkinson enthuses: "One part of the garden has lots of reindeers, unicorns and snowmen. The vegetable patch is decorated with light-up foxes and rabbits. A model railway line has homemade lit-up Christmas trees beside it."
He adds: "I just love doing it. What gives me the biggest kick is seeing people walk out of the side alley.
"It opens up in front of them, everyone says 'wow' when they see it. Watching people's reactions is my favourite part."
Watch: UK electrician spends more than £10k on 30,000-bulb Christmas display at his home
