Beautiful light display in Broom switched on tonight to raise money for Sue Ryder

Christmas-mad couple Anne and Paul Nicholas have built a festive dreamland for families to come and admire, as they hope to support the Moggerhanger hospice during the pandemic.

Tonight (December 3) at 6pm, Biggleswade celebrity Charles Whitbread will be turning on the lights for a small gathering, with local families invited to book a slot this December and experience the magic.

Paul said: "We are a couple living in Broom and every year we decorate our garden with Christmas lights. This is usually for fun but in the past couple of years we have done it for charity. Last year we raised over a thousand pounds for our local Sue Ryder Hospice in Moggerhanger.

"This year with the pandemic we decided to go totally mad and have managed, between just my wife and I, to put together what we are calling a 'Lunatic light Display' with some 200,000 lights to raise much needed funds."

Throughout the past year, the couple has had to rebuild their garden to make it suitable for social distancing, and they have had to have the whole display passed by Central Bedfordshire Council - both in terms of safety and also for a lotteries licence, so they can run their raffle.

This year boasts many prizes kindly donated by friends and companies in the area.

Paul added: "Last year we had the head of our parish council turn the lights on. This year we have managed to get Charles Whitbread, of the Whitbread empire, to turn them on. We felt that we needed to make people smile and this is our way of trying to do this.

"We have turned our log cabin into a Santa’s Grotto, enabling children from this parish to see Santa for real and not virtually. As much as I would like everyone to see the lights we have had to set up a booking system as per Council guidelines, as it has become very busy."

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