Skip to content

Christmas lights display lights up neighbourhood

Elliot Smith A group of people surrounded by bright festive lights, are standing posing for a photograph with a large, red sleigh.Elliot Smith
This year the decorations have gone "above and beyond" according to Elliot Smith

Residents on a street in Staffordshire are enjoying a seasonal spectacle, after weeks of hard work.

Tasha Quick and Elliot Smith, who live on Oxford Gardens in Stafford, decorate their house each year for Halloween and Christmas to raise money for charity.

They are using this year's Christmas lights to fundraise for Hearts and Hands, which supports families in Stafford and its surrounding villages.

So far this Christmas, more than £1,500 has been raised - to add to almost £2,000 raised over Halloween.

They first started putting up the extravagant decorations three years ago, and it has grown into a seasonal tradition.

Construction worker Mr Smith said it had taken more than a month to put them all up.

"As soon as Halloween comes down, Christmas starts going up," he said.

"We’ve gone a lot bigger this year, we’ve gone above and beyond. We've got a lot of sets of lights up."

Mr Smith makes some of the decorations himself, and this year he has added a sleigh to the display.

Elliot Smith A house is covered with festive lights and there are tall illuminated structures in the garden which are shaped like cones. The lights are different colours, and cover most parts of the building and surrounding fence and wall.Elliot Smith
The Christmas decorations help raise funds for charity, through donations from visitors

The big switch-on took place on 30 November, with an event that included a tombola and raffle.

Speaking about why they chose to raise money for Hearts and Hands, Mr Smith said: "They are a local charity that provide support to low income working or retired people, people on zero-hour contracts, blue light workers and armed forces who are struggling with the cost of living and need a bit of help.

"They are managed solely by volunteers and rely on donations."

Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.

More on this story