It has 25,000 lights, musical accompaniment and is for a good cause – and it comes with an electricity bill the owners cannot bear to look at.
The Christmas lights of the Shepherd family home, in Marlow Bottom, Buckinghamshire, have lit up their neighbourhood for more than a decade.
The display boasts two Christmas trees, several stars high over the household and even a host of illuminated reindeer.
Jancis and Tony Shepherd have seen their festive tradition grow in complexity year on year, and for 2015 have used it to raise £4,500 for a cancer charity , Mummy’s Star.
“This is the 16th year we have collected for charity using the lights and they have grown each year,” Mrs Shepherd, 57, said.
“It’s a year-round project. We go on holiday in December or January and bring the lights from America, then it takes us about 10 days to put them up for Christmas.
“I don’t look at the electricity bill – it’s better not to know these things.”
This year’s offering comes with a playlist of music – including Amazing Grace and Let It Go – which the lights are synchronised to flash in time to.
As it grew in size, the family drive, which bursts into life on December 1, becomes an attraction for people from across the country.
Mrs Shepherd said: “It usually gets busiest on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, because that’s when people are free to bring their children.”
The family decided to use their light show to support local causes following the death in a hospice of Mrs Shepherd’s mother, who had always loved the lights.
Their daughters Naomi, 25, Heidi, 23 and Imogen, 18, are also “avid supporters” of the yearly tradition, Mrs Shepherd added.
But just because they live in the brightest Christmas house in the area, they do not get special privileges.
“Tony tells off the girls for leaving their bedroom lights on and it does make me laugh,” she said.
[Source:-mirror]