A family that has raised tens of thousands of pounds and created a Bristol institution are hard at work once again creating the city’s most spectacular Christmas lights display.
It will be the 25th anniversary of the start of what is now known as The Brailsford Christmas Lights, and the family has come a long way since the first Christmas back in 1994.
Back then, brothers Lee and Paul Brailsford were just teenagers who took advantage of the Boxing Day sale of Christmas lights at B&Q and bought a small illuminated Christmas tree shape to put on the front of their house.
The display grew each year, and now, even though Lee and Paul grew up and moved out of the family home in Brentry, they return to their mum’s house to turn it into a festive illuminations spectacular.
Work has already begun - it takes around two months to set up, but the lights won’t be switched on until the start of Advent on December 1.
The two boys grew up into tradesmen - Lee is a carpenter and Paul is a brickie - which came in very handy for creating and building the lighting rigs and sets that fill their family home.
“When we left home and got our own houses and families, our mum said we should split the lights half each,” Lee said.
“But the following Christmas the neighbours were asking: ‘When are you starting your Christmas lights?’
“We didn’t like to say we weren’t doing them anymore because we got our own houses, so we just carried on doing the lights every year,” he added.
“As the lights display got bigger, we moved on to other parts of the house, roof, garage and now we are even into the garden.
"It takes a lot of setting up and that’s why we start in October,” he said.
The next generation of Brailsfords are now heavily involved in setting up the lights - even though they weren’t even born when it all started.
"We've been doing it for so many years now that it's become a big part of the family - even though it started before they were born we've got the next generation helping us out now,” said Lee.
"It's something that we look forward to all year, it's a really big part of our lives now and it's lovely that it's become such a big tradition not only in our family, but also amongst so many families across Bristol and beyond,” he added.
In the early days, the family decided that, since people were coming to look at their lights from far and wide, they should suggest making donations to charity - and initially raised money for Southmead Hospital’s Tiny Lives Campaign. For the past ten years or so, they’ve raised money for the Grand Appeal - and took the total raised past £65,000 with the 2018 display.
This year’s display will be switched on every night in December from 5pm to 10pm - and it’s at Trevisa Grove in Brentry.
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