Our 40,000 Christmas lights cost us £600 but we don’t care, it’s well worth it

A CHRISTMAS-daft family are spending £20 a day to light up their home for visitors who come from all over Scotland. 

Every year the Woods, from Prestonpans, East Lothian, transform their home into a huge display and Santa’s Grotto to raise money for charity.  

Despite the energy pricing crisis, they reckon the more than 40,000 bulbs decorating their house won’t break the bank.

By using LED lights, it’s estimated the cost will be around £600 by Christmas Day – around £20 for the four hours they light up their home between 5pm and 9pm until then. 

Steve, 32, who lives at home with his wife Sheena, 28, and daughters Ellie, 12, and Brooklyn’s two, believes it’s well worth all of the hard work to make it happen.

He says: “We will have around 40 thousands bulbs in total and we are 90 percent LED so the display is really efficient overall. 

“We have a sponsor this year – C Dryburgh Domestics – which goes toward the electricity bill and also buying sweets for the kids that visit and a few other things.

“It’s over 40,000 individual bulbs we have been collecting for eight years now.

“The planning starts in the summer.

“We start putting it up before Halloween and it takes four weeks.

“The grotto needs to be set up at the end of September as it’s also used to store more of the display.”

It’s a tradition for those in the local community to attained the family switch-on.

But people from much further afield also make the journey to see one of Scotland’s most spectacular displays.

Steve adds: “On the night of the switch-on, the whole street is full of people who do the countdown.

“All the lights come on at once then Santa comes out and greets everyone.

“Even the adults love the full size sleigh in the grotto for their Instagram pics and family pictures.”