A COUPLE have put on an extravagant Christmas show with thousands of LED lights.

The house in Hemley Close, Westhoughton is owned by 56-year-old Paul John Spann and his wife, Lisa, whose light and music shows entertain families from far afield.

Decked out in 88,000 LED lights, the attraction varies between Disney themes for children as well as lights to impress the adults, fitted and programmed by Paul himself.

There are singing characters, recorded character speeches by the Spanns, and music and videos played on LED screens.

Paul said: “This is the first year we have done this, and I got the idea from YouTube, where I found it’s very popular in the USA and Australia.

“I thought I’d like to do something similar, so I spent a long time since then getting the equipment together. All the LEDs are imported from China, and I started putting it together three weeks ago.

“It’s entertainment for the local people and gives them something different as well as raising money for Derian House Children’s Hospice in Chorley."

The couple will run evening shows from Friday to Sunday now until Christmas.

Paul said: “So far everyone absolutely loves it, they say they have never seen anything like this before and the children are really impressed with it.

“For the kids, we have Santa shark and Disney themes, but take it out when the adults are viewing it. We have four animated characters, which my wife and I play by script and then recorded it. It was so fun to do.”

The programming expert found it easy to assemble the lights and program them to do as he wanted, as he is used to it in his IT career.

However, he didn’t enjoy putting up the LED star due to a fear of heights.

He said: “The neighbours also love it, with some even saying they’re not bothering with lights this year, because they could never compete with ours. We’re just trying to keep everyone happy, so if people want to come and see it, they’d love it too.

“There’s a lot of data involved, so you’ve got to know what you’re doing and you need some creativity too.”

The couple have set up a Just Giving page and have raised just over £400 so far.