Where one house leads, others often follow  (BBC)

Drive through the suburbs of any British town and you will not fail to notice the houses, and sometimes whole streets, lit up with festive decorations - with varying degrees of taste.

Christmas has gone bling, with a massive range of lights on the market, from modest "icicle" chains to 12ft illuminated sets of Santa and his reindeers.

Five years ago it was hard to find outdoor lights without going to a specialist, but they are now available in every garden centre, as well as many high street shops and online.

With more and more people catching the decorating bug, manufacturers have experienced an explosion in demand.

Jonathan Shaw, director of online lights supply firm Christmas Lights Direct, said: "It's been a very good year for us. We've sold almost everything we had.

"The American trend is coming over here. Over there the whole street goes barmy at Christmas.

"When we were children very few people trimmed up outside but now, more and more people are starting to put something in their garden, then their neighbours follow suit."

Although falling prices have probably boosted sales, Mr Shaw says people are still willing to spend hundreds on their displays.

He said: "If you want to decorate a house with icicles, you can do it for ￡50 or ￡60 but orders of ￡200 or ￡250 have not been uncommon.

"Our most expensive line was a 12ft sign saying Merry Christmas, which cost about ￡148, but that sold out very quickly, as did the 3D Christmas trains, which were ￡125.

Some people go to extraordinary lengths to make sure their display is the biggest and brightest, spending thousands on decorations which take weeks to erect.

Danny and Anne Meikle have been lighting up their house in Coalburn, Lanarkshire, every year for a decade.

The display, which uses 1.2 million bulbs and ￡50,000-worth of decorations and equipment, can be seen for two miles away.

(Agencies)