Port Stanley couple's Christmas display lights up the night

Dennis Taylor spent most of November setting up a Christmas light display with 73,000 bulbs outside his Port Stanley home.

Its an annual tradition for Taylor, an electrician at General Dynamics in London who uses the spectacle to gather donations for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and a local food bank.

But the day before he was set to flip the switch, part of the system short-circuited and knocked out most of the lights in his front yard about 21,000 bulbs.

I decided that was it, said Taylor, who logged about 200 hours setting up the display with help from 14 friends, neighbours and family members.

I'm no longer going to do lights, he told himself. I'm going to find a new hobby. I'm not even turning them on.

By 3 a.m. he was awake and thinking about a fix. He soon had one, transforming the property into a familiar winter wonderland that attracts thousands of visitors each year.

It's going to be an expensive year coming up to try to replace and fix everything properly for next season, he said.

But I'm still going to keep doing it.

Taylor and his partner Raymie Jewell have used the display to gather more than $18,700 in the last four years for Make-A-Wish, a charity that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.

Theyve also gathered an estimated 7,000 pounds of food for the Port Stanley food bank.

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Port Stanley couple's Christmas display lights up the night