14 DAY TRIAL // The Australian David Richards took back the Christmas lights World Record after hanging more than half a million lights on his house. David's first world record was of 331,038 light bulbs back in 2011 and was outdone by a couple in New York with 15,000 more lights.
The gigantic display is so popular that couples decided to get married under the beautiful colored array of Christmas lights. The Richards’ residence is expected to see tens of thousands of visitors during the exposition.
For their previous record more than 70,000 visitors came to see the beautiful lights and donated almost $71,128 (€52,665). This year's record is set to bring even more visitors and all the money donated will be given to charity. The Richards’ home has more than 31 miles (48 km) of wire of Christmas lights all around the propriety in the suburban forest.
The neighbors are said to be supportive of the display, but they haven't really spoken to the record holders since the announcement, according to Sky News. In order to manage installing the lights in time for the holidays, David had to start working on them since October and admits that his motivation was taking back the record.
In a statement given to the local newspaper, Richards admits “it was sort of a reason to do it again, and they didn't break it by very much. I thought 500,000 was a nice round number so I decided to go all out because I may never do it again.”
In an attempt to help the charity Richards supports, a local power company offered to donate the electricity cost of the lights for the next month, almost $2,300 (€1,676). By the end of the holiday season, Richards is hoping to donate more than $88,915 (€65,856) for the SIDS and Kids ACT charity.