'We start preparing our Christmas lights in January'

For Christmas-loving couple Gary and Anna Gray, it takes a whole 12 months to get their home ready for the festive season.

They transform their house in Armadale, West Lothian, into a high-tech Christmas light show.

Hundreds of people flock to the Grays' home to watch the amazing display, which has become known locally as the "Armadale illuminations".

It has more than 24,000 lights and about 150 props - including LED Christmas trees, candy canes and angel wings.

They all link up through Gary’s laptop and are synchronised in time with music.

It takes 10 months of planning and another six weeks to build.

“As soon as one show is finished we start planning for the following year," Gary says.

“Even during the time we’re running a Christmas show, we start thinking about next year – about the songs, the sequences, the props. It really does start in January."

Over the summer, Gary spends time building and repairing the props and he uses his skills from his job as a computer programmer to light them up in time with the music.

“From October, it’s all I do," Gary says.

"As soon as I finish work I go straight into getting it all ready. It's a huge amount of work setting it up."

More than 2,000 visitors from across Scotland are expected to turn up at the Grays' house to watch the 30-minute light show.

It plays every Thursday to Sunday night throughout December, and also Christmas Eve.

Gary, who also celebrates his birthday on Boxing Day, says he has always loved the Christmas period.

It was the Covid lockdown in winter 2020 that inspired the couple to create their first light show.

Anna says: “It started as something to get the neighbours involved just so we could all be together outdoors.

“We just thought, 'we’ll do a switch on for the neighbours and everybody can be outside and have fun together' – and it just grew arms and legs.”

One neighbour posted about the display on a Facebook community group and, as word spread, people from the local area began standing outside to catch the show.

The couple say that the display has been welcomed by their neighbours, despite hundreds of people visiting the street each night.

Some of the neighbours have even begun helping to organise the event.

"The neighbours have been amazing, they've been really supportive," Gary says.

"A lot of them come to see it multiple times themselves."

Anna and Gary began inviting visitors to make a donation to charity. They say this fundraising is "at the heart" of why they put in so much effort.

Over the past four years they have raised thousands of pounds for Cancer Research, the British Heart Foundation and local charity, the Armadale Shed.

This year they are fundraising for Alzheimer Scotland, in memory of Anna's grandmother who had dementia.

They also invite local care-homes to watch the display and, this year, are running a quieter show for children with autism.

But there is one question the couple are always asked - how much does it all cost?

Gary says: "Every year we get folks saying 'I wouldn't want to have your electricity bill'.

"It's not about the cost for us, it's about what we can raise for charity."

Despite its success, this will be the final year the couple organise the light show.

"We've done four good years when it was only meant to be a Covid project," Gary says.

"It's time to do things that normal people do at Christmas."