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More than 50,000 Christmas lights lit for charity

AAP

AAP

Hundreds of people have attended the switch-on of more than 50,000 Christmas lights – at a family home.

Lee and Paul Brailsford have been decorating their mother Rosemary’s house in Brentry, Bristol, since 1994 to raise money for charity.

The brothers have since raised more than Stg30,000 ($A61,728) for The Grand Appeal, the charity for Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

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The Stg10,000 display, featuring 70 light-up figures including Santas and snowmen, has taken six weekends to erect and they will spend three days taking it down.

christmas lights

A snow scene and Christmas lights among thousands of festive bulbs and displays for charity. Photo: AAP

It will be illuminated for six hours a day for 31 days – a total of 186 hours – following the big switch-on.

Visitors may be unaware of the 200,000 metres of cabling used but will spot the biggest item, a rare life-sized nativity set which came from the US.

Lee Brailsford said: “We started decorating the house more than 20 years ago, and each year it’s got bigger and bigger.

“We wanted to raise money for The Grand Appeal as Paul and I both have young children, and we realised how lucky we are to have such a fantastic hospital right on our doorstep if ever we needed it.

“The switch-on is a lot of work but it’s also really exciting.”

The Brailsfords’ first decoration was a small light-up Christmas tree but their collection now includes 15 Santas, 10 reindeer and 10 snowmen.

There are 30 sets of rope lights, 10 sets of twinkling icicles, 50 rope-light shapes, trains, elves, soldiers and the light-up nativity on a specially built stage.

The display costs around Stg600 to run, with 19 different local companies sponsoring this year’s display to help cover costs and provide equipment for the switch-on.

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