We visit some of the brightest and best Christmas house decorations, visiting Portsmouth, Preston, Leeds and Bamburgh Castle, to see what's involved in putting on an impressive display
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00:00 [Music]
00:03 Christmas lights have come a long way since 1882 when Thomas Edison's colleague,
00:07 Edward H. Johnson, strung 80 coloured electric lights around a Christmas tree in New York.
00:12 [Music]
00:16 Most people have a few fairy lights on the front of their property or in the odd tree here and there,
00:21 but for some, decking the halls has become something of an obsession.
00:26 In this programme, we'll visit houses in Leeds and Portsmouth and even a castle in the North East
00:30 to see what happens when Christmas becomes something of a big deal.
00:34 But first to Preston, where the Tipping family are preparing for the big switch-off.
00:39 This is our 12th year this year. It started about 12 years ago.
00:46 We used to put a few lights on our house. We planted a Christmas tree in the front garden,
00:49 which was like four foot high now and it's like 30 foot high now.
00:54 We started putting a few lights on. People used to come and look at them.
00:56 And then one gentleman once said one day, "It's brilliant what you do with your house."
01:00 He said, "Why don't you do it for charity?" So we thought, "Next year, yeah, we will do it for charity."
01:04 So we put more effort into it and did it for charity. So we thought, "What charity should we do it for?"
01:08 So we thought, "Well, if it's Christmas, we'll do it for children's charity."
01:12 So we do it for Derry and House and that's how it started.
01:15 [Music]
01:23 Does it get bigger every year?
01:24 Yes, yes, especially this year. Nine years ago, we had a big switch-on,
01:30 which about 2,000 people, 2,500 people turned up, which took us completely by surprise.
01:36 But that night, we raised £16,000. But we had a queue of people on our driveway to choose a toilet,
01:42 about 30 people. So we said, "Never again, we can't do that again."
01:46 Way over the top for one family to cope with that. So nine years later, for some mad reason,
01:51 we decided to do it again. But this year, we're getting more organised as a company,
01:55 Porta Toilet Company, who's bringing six Portaloos down. The council brought wheelie bins down.
02:01 We're a lot more organised this time. We've got two boys set up hot dogs.
02:06 We've got other lighting. And there's actually 63 people working on the night on Sunday.
02:10 [Music]
02:24 How many people do you think you expect?
02:26 I reckon about 3,000, 3,500 people will be coming, weather permitting.
02:30 Do you have some sort of target for the sort of money you can raise for this?
02:33 No, more, more, obviously. Last year, we raised £18,000. So over the 11 years,
02:39 we've done it. And the first year we started, we raised £2,000. Could not believe it.
02:43 And it grew and it grew and grew. The most we've ever made is £26,000 in a year.
02:47 And that was in lockdown. Because every night was packed here because no pubs open,
02:52 no garden centres where people go and see Father Christmas.
02:55 So everyone would bring in their kids here. So that was the most we've ever made.
02:58 We'll head back to Preston at the end of the programme to see the lights in all their glory.
03:04 But for now, we head to Leeds where the Hodson family have just about got over Halloween.
03:09 Now they're doing it all over again.
03:11 [Music]
03:25 Halloween was our busiest Halloween we've ever had. Thousands of people,
03:29 thousands of packets of Haribo given away and we raised over £1,000 in less than a week.
03:34 It was absolutely incredible. We're really happy with it.
03:36 The day that Halloween finishes, we switch it off and then we start unplugging and start
03:41 bringing out some of the Christmas stuff. So it just doesn't end. We don't really leave the house
03:45 until January and then we go and have a nice meal.
03:49 We've got a few new things this year. The reindeer, the Santa, the key piece I think
03:54 over there is the gingerbread house, which we're really happy with. It looks brilliant.
04:00 We're trying out some new things. Obviously, we don't work on TV, but we've got some smells going
04:04 around. Yeah.
04:07 We've got some new interactive features which aren't live today,
04:09 but the way that our show works is we add something every day.
04:12 One of our friends who visits every day has requested a train, so we've tried to do that.
04:16 We've got the selfie elf, which you can take a picture with, put your head through and change
04:20 the colour of his jacket. And yeah, so there's just a lot of stuff we've added and moved around.
04:26 We're going to be adding some new songs as well. We've got 23 on the list at the moment,
04:30 and that's going to keep growing. Each one of these little lights is programmable.
04:33 What we do is we sit at the computer. Sometimes we have to listen to the songs really,
04:38 really slowly to get the mouth movements just right on the thing.
04:42 You try and design it around the beats of the music and the mouth movements and everything
04:45 like that and drum beats and things. And it is like everything is synchronised in our main show.
04:50 And then that can be a little bit overwhelming for some. So that's why we have our sensory
04:53 sessions. We're bringing them back this year, so there'll be a few times a week before the show.
04:58 And that's when things are a lot quieter like this, but we're just with some smooth background
05:01 music just so you can think. We're about, what would you say? I think it's about 46,000.
05:05 About 46,000 individually programmable lights. So each one is programmable, like Heather said.
05:11 We call them pixels, but to people, they're just lights. And yeah, honestly, I've not plugged it
05:17 into a wattage calculator. I'm afraid to. But all I know is it does add a little bit to the electric.
05:22 But like I say, it's a hobby. That's the cost of doing business. And we genuinely spend more
05:27 on Haribo. We try and work with the neighbours quite a lot to make sure that traffic doesn't
05:31 build up. We run them for extended hours to make sure that people can just come in and out. And we
05:36 have a steady flow, which I think works really well. We do it for one reason and well, two reasons.
05:42 One is to give something everybody to enjoy. But the main reason is to raise money for
05:45 Martin House. Although it's free, you know, people can come and not like we would appreciate any
05:50 donations. And we work with the charity a lot. They're coming down in a few days, I think. And
05:56 we're really, really pleased with our relationship with them. Thank you to everybody for liking,
06:01 sharing. I think we've already started planning 2024 now, haven't we? Oh, definitely. There's
06:05 some plans there. You walk around, you go, we could do this, we could do that. I would be remiss
06:09 if I didn't say that Scarlet would be here to take all the credit if she was. But she's with
06:14 the grandparents at the moment. But obviously, it's her show and she's done all the work.
06:18 [Music]
06:24 Now let's head south and pay a visit to Portsmouth near Portsmouth,
06:28 where we find the Wright family and their 50 odd year old tradition.
06:31 [Music]
06:35 Right, well, Bill, Barbara, honestly, this is Portchester. This is Portchester,
06:42 there's the crossway. We've been living here now for 17 years. And we love it. We love the people.
06:48 It really is fantastic. We've been charity lights now for 50 odd years, really. But not for charity,
06:59 but for the last, I suppose, 15 years, people are saying to us, you really ought to do it for
07:04 charity. And that's what we've done. We've looked after, we've done a lot of charity work now for
07:09 the hospitals and schools. And three years ago, we got involved with the local food bank, Woodseas.
07:17 And so far, it's going very, very well indeed. With the three years so far, we've made for them
07:25 £9,200. This year, the little challenge, and I'm sure we're going to do it, with the people's help
07:33 here, we need about another £800 and then that'll be £10,000 we've made for the food bank.
07:39 It is our intention now that because of the help that we've had, the interest,
07:44 I mean, everyone has been really great at it. Providing we're well enough, we should continue
07:50 to do it, I think. For the food bank, it seems there's so many things going for it. It's obviously
07:57 local people. All the money that gets spent and gets distributed comes from the people locally,
08:04 the vast majority of it, and goes to the people locally. Well, mainly, I mean, what we love the
08:10 most, I suppose, is the excitement from the kids, because they love it. The parents are interested,
08:17 of course, they love it as well. But it's the excitement that the kids get. And the, you know,
08:23 we're putting the pennies into the box, which they love, and we've actually encouraged that
08:27 this year. You know, to say that, you know, the kids love it and it helps us. I mean, last year,
08:33 we got over £300 with pennies, didn't we, from the kids? Yes, I know, which was a lot of fun
08:38 taking to the bank. And the money is going. We're going to get a lot of money as well from the kids
08:45 putting their pennies in there. They love every minute of it. And so, yeah, they're always obviously
08:50 very interested as well. And they know us now. We know them and we got to know a lot of people by
08:57 face. And just in the town walking down there, you know, we love it. And we'll continue.
09:05 [Music playing]
09:33 So those houses were spectacular enough, but what happens when you have a whole castle to decorate?
09:38 Our reporter Graham Murray popped along to Banborough Castle in Northumberland
09:45 to cast his eye on their Christmas kingdom. Inspired by Northumberland's myths and legends,
09:51 you can journey through the castle's stateroom, steeped in stories and folklore,
09:55 and discover a world sprinkled full of fairy magic. I'm here at Banborough Castle on the
10:00 Northumberland coastline, a place which, despite being from the northeast, I haven't actually
10:04 visited before to see their winter display, which is a relatively recent tradition, but a really
10:10 spectacular one. Hello there. I'm Claire Watson-Armstrong and I family own Banborough Castle
10:16 in Northumberland, which is where we are today. This is our Christmas kingdom. And this year,
10:22 the theme is enchanted myths and legends of Northumbria. And I was so excited about this.
10:30 It's a theme that really is close to our hearts here at Banborough, because as you know, it's an
10:36 iconic castle above the Northumberland coast here. So these themes that amazing Charlotte Lloyd-Webber,
10:44 who's the designer who has created our Christmas experience, they're all drawn from actual myths
10:51 and folklore and legends. So we've got our incredible selkies, the tales of the seal
10:58 that slips its skin and becomes this beautiful maiden, and that comes from the Farn Islands.
11:03 And then we've got tales of fairy rings and there's all sorts of incredible
11:08 things that you can see all around the castle. We're just so excited about it. And
11:13 I am seeing it for the first time. I wanted it to be a surprise and it just takes your breath away.
11:20 It's glorious. So this is our third year of having the Christmas kingdom here at Banborough Castle.
11:28 And we just wanted to do something to celebrate the magic of Christmas.
11:32 So each of the staterooms is transformed into this wonderful riot of festivity and
11:39 drawing on this theme of myths and legends of Northumbria. So we've got incredible foliage
11:46 displays. We've got Christmas trees. We've got pieces and props that are new this year that
11:52 have been bespoke made for Banborough Castle.
11:54 [no audio]
12:03 The actual planning, the behind the scenes work, that's been going on for several months now. So
12:08 all of the props that are being made, the planning, the designs, the mapping out. So
12:12 it starts in January. So really it's a whole year in the planning.
12:16 Now the family themselves don't live in the castle, so these don't actually count as their
12:19 home decorations. So I couldn't help but ask if maybe given how elaborate the decorations are
12:24 here, perhaps they're a little more casual with the ones at home. Maybe the occasional
12:28 chipped bauble from Woolworths comes out the cupboard each year.
12:30 Sadly ours isn't quite as grand as this, but I think we all make Christmas,
12:35 Christmas is something so personal, isn't it? And I think, you know, the beloved,
12:40 the bauble that comes out every year is just as precious. But it's lovely just to give this feast
12:46 for the senses. And I think this is a bit like all of your wildest imaginations of Christmas,
12:52 all just come into this wonderful, fantastical world that I think will touch so many.
12:57 [no audio]
13:05 Back to Preston now and the big night has finally arrived for the Tipping family,
13:09 and so have TV crews from as far away as Germany.
13:13 Yeah, we're filming for the German television, it's called Pro7,
13:17 tough, and they make, yeah, we want to see how the British people celebrate Christmas.
13:24 And this is unusual?
13:25 Yeah.
13:26 You don't do anything like this in Germany?
13:27 No, it's my first time.
13:29 Not this size?
13:30 Yeah.
13:30 Okay, big deal.
13:31 Yeah, it's looking great. The lighthouse is beautiful. We travelled yesterday to Manchester
13:38 and for today to see the whole day, how is it working, how they prepare everything,
13:43 and to follow a little bit Mark, what they're doing, and how busy he is.
13:48 You enjoy yourself, huh?
13:50 I enjoy a lot. Thank you very much.
13:52 [no audio]
14:02 [music]
14:13 [no audio]
14:28 [music]
14:38 [no audio]
14:48 [music]
14:58 [no audio]
15:08 [cheering]
15:22 Well, with the Preston City Ghostbusters and tonight we're looking for some Christmas spirits.
15:26 Have you done it before?
15:28 We did, last couple of years, yeah.
15:29 So it's a good night?
15:30 It's a very, very good night.
15:31 I'm looking forward to raising a lot of money for charity.
15:32 Oh, absolutely.
15:33 Except the class 5 entities.
15:35 I don't think there'll be many of them out.
15:38 Hopefully not.
15:38 [no audio]
15:54 Can you carry on some five?
15:55 [no audio]
15:59 Five!
16:00 Four!
16:02 Three!
16:03 Two!
16:04 One!
16:06 [cheering]
16:22 [music]
16:44 Are you trying to get this house seen from space?
16:46 Is that an ambition?
16:48 Yeah, well we've had, yeah, you can see us on Google Maps.
16:52 [laughs]
16:54 [music]
16:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]