Who

John & Pauline Coombes
Licencee's of he Summer House Pub

Why do you put the display up?

The reason we do it is that we love Christmas. It's fun we live in a world where there's a lot of misery and we just try to brighten people's lives up.

Also the Summer House is a Summer Pub where parents bring their children to play on the swings etc…. So what were trying to do is spread the summer enjoyment for the parents and children into the winter months.

So is it a commercial venture?

Not really even if we didn't run the pub we would still put the decorations up wherever we lived. We treat the Pub as our home so we have decorations inside and out for ourselves and the customers.

We get no money from the Brewery it all comes out of our own pocket.

So how much did it cost?

This display cost £6000, it's a lot of money but we love it and we always believe in buying quality.

How long have you been putting up your displays?

It started three years ago. The first year was just a few lights and decorations. The second year we did a bigger display and got a really good response, so we decided to doi it again this year.

So how and when do you plan the display?

We plan next year's display at the end of this year. This years theme is 'Christmas Trees' which we started to put together in July so there is a lot of work involved. We have 12 Christmas trees lit up on the front of the pub and we will be up at six every morning all week  putting the decorations up until we unveil this years display on Sunday.

So what's next years theme?

Next year we will be creating Santa's grotto in the front garden. I also plan to fly to China as this is where most of the lights and decorations are made so it's the best place to buy the latest lights.

Peoples Reactions

Some people hate it but we get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

When we got into the village it was a dead village. Now people are putting up lights all around the area. It's like a ripple effect. There's a bungalow that now puts up a great display since we've been here.

We even had an accident outside last year because all the traffic grinds to a halt when people drive past.

Future Aspirations

We want to make the display bigger and better than ever, and hopefully we can get on TV.