EVERY time Matt Beckett switches on his Christmas lights, he helps people at Basingstoke hospital.

The 26-year-old electrician is one of several people in the borough who has adorned the front of their home with Christmas lights.

The eye-catching decorations at Mr Beckett’s property, in Wilmott Way, Winklebury, include a large angel and Father Christmas in his sleigh.

He is raising money for the North Hampshire Medical Fund, a charity which buys equipment for Basingstoke hospital, where his son Joshua was born just 22 weeks ago.

Mr Beckett said: “Everyone loves the display. A lot of the parents want us to keep them all year round, because it helps their children be good for Father Christmas.

“The main thing is to enable the children to enjoy them, but if we can raise a little bit of money as well then it’s all well and good.”

Visitors to the house have donated money, with one woman posting £30 through Mr Beckett’s letterbox.

Tadley firm SA Scaffolding helped to put up a metal frame for the lights, while his partner Debbie Clark, 26, helped with where to put the lights.

And Keith Brown is another fan of the festive light fantastic – he reckons he must have 40 sets of Christmas lights around his house in Brackley Way, on the Berg Estate, in Basingstoke.

The 50-year-old, who works at Tadley firm John Stacey and Sons, said: “When we moved to a bungalow, I decided to put up a few decorations, and every year I buy a few more and keep expanding and expanding it.

“People pull up with their kids to look at the lights. At the moment, people are down in the dumps with the country the way it is, and this puts back a little bit of cheer.”