A couple who previously terrified children with their UK’s scariest Halloween house have now turned their property into a Christmas winter wonderland.
Elliot Smith, 32, and his partner Tasha Quick, 33, decided to make amends for the Halloween fright by creating a spectacular festive display featuring 5,000 lights and Christmas decorations.
The Stafford-based couple spent weeks and hundreds of pounds transforming their end terrace into a mini Christmas village, which is now open for families to visit.
The festive creation includes reindeer, a hand-built sleigh, towering 16-foot (5-meter) trees, giant nutcrackers, candy canes, and a shop where children can buy sweets.
In addition to spreading holiday cheer, the couple are also raising money for charity. Their stunning display, which is lit up for five hours each day, has so far raised £2,000.
Dad-of-three Elliot shared: “As soon as Halloween decorations came down, the Christmas lights start going up. It took me a week to get the Halloween stuff down and then probably a month to create this. We’ve got at least 5,000 lights on the house. We’ve done it previously but we’ve gone a lot bigger this year, we’ve gone above and beyond.
“We built a full scale sleigh this and we’ve got Santa’s village with a post office to write letters to Santa and a workshop. There’s also Santa’s shop where you can buy sweets and Christmas decorations where we’re raising money.
“Then we have Snowman’s Avenue which is like the North Pole and about seven light up reindeers around the trees. It’s nice and festive; we all love it.”
Elliot humorously suggests that the Christmas decorations are a way to compensate for frightening so many children during Halloween. Their eerie display and maze had to be restricted to over 18s only after a trial run with some children left them too scared.
He added: “It has definitely gone from one extreme to the other. We do both of them for people to enjoy, I’ve had a few people visiting for Chistmas who say they were at Halloween too, but they all seem to love it.”
Despite boasting at least 5,000 lights, Elliot discloses that it only costs him £15 a week in electricity and he personally crafts a lot of his decorations to save on expenses.
Elliot, who works in construction, added: “It’s pretty bright, so you might need to bring your sunglasses. But it’s probably costing me £15 a week to run them all; they’re all LEDs and low-wattage.
“They’re only on for five hours a day. I think a lot of people think it costs a lot to run them, but it doesn’t take a lot. They don’t cost as much as people think. I spend around £400 on lights and decorations each year, a lot of it I make myself.
“We have worked with a lot of companies this year; Travis Perkins and MKM, to name a few, have all provided me with the materials to make the sleigh. I must have had £500 worth of material donated. It’s a lot of paint and time, though, and a lot of effort goes into it.”
The couple are raising funds for Hearts and Hands, a charity that supports families in Stafford and its surrounding villages.
Elliot further stated: “They are a local charity that provide support to low income working or retired people, people on zero-hour contracts, blue light workers and armed forces who are struggling with the cost of living and need a bit of help. They are managed solely by volunteers and rely on donations.”
To donate, visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/hearts-hands-stafford?utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link
