Home holds Guinness World Record for most Christmas lights on residential property
UNION VALE, New York (KVIA) -- Timothy and Grace Gay of Union Vale, New York, say they've held the Guinness World Record for most lights on a residential property since 2014. This year, the couple displayed more than 720,000 lights, all programmed to music in order to celebrate the holiday season in style.
"It started just very simple with just 600 lights on the two trees by the front steps. My brother suggested to put lights around the pond and that was actually the spark that ignited adding more lights each year " said Tim Gay. The family say it takes them 3 months to set up the display with 40 miles of lights and 8 miles of extension cords. The home display has turned into an annual event.
The small town of only 45,000 is now attracting from 50,000 to 100,000 thousand visitors. "I was so mesmerized..." and "You get to drive around as many times as you want." are some of the comments from the visitors. Many locals say the event is a literal and metaphorical bright light and a massive fundraiser. The family says they have collected more than $665,000 dollars for charity.
All coming from visitors donations, over the past 3 decades. The family says their goal is to collect one million dollars in donations and believe they can accomplish that in the next few years.
