A family from New York is hoping to reclaim a world record for the most number of Christmas lights on a residential home.
In 2013 David Richards and his wife Janean lit up their ACT neighbourhood with 502,165 lights.
That earned them the Guinness World Record in the category: "Most Lights on a Residential Property"
With the festive season fast approaching, New York homeowner and 2012 title holder Timothy Gay is looking to reclaim the record using more than 600,000 lights.
Extreme? Yes. But he's proud of the reactions his displays generate.
"It's just wonderful, it's such an expression of joy and gratitude for this that it really brings a lot of happiness to us knowing that we're touching so many people," he says.
"The night we found out we lost it I got a phone call from a radio station in New York City and they asked me 'how did it feel?'.
"I said 'Well you're telling me now for the first time, so I can tell you that I feel like congratulating the family in Australia.' Records are made to be broken."
Tim Gay and his family have put up more than 420,000 lights of their own, and now they've attracted a cracker company to sponsor them by putting up an additional 180,000 lights.
"When we got married we never thought about putting up light displays," explains Tim's wife, Grace Gay. "But I know that when Emily was born Tim put up 600 lights around the property.
"They're all blue, really beautiful, they were actually partially a gift from my mother. And that's how it started."
Each year it got bigger, and now the lights are choreographed to music, using a sophisticated computer software program connected to lighting control boxes in the yard.
They even use a transmitter to broadcast the choreographed music to car radios that drive through the display.
Timothy Gay says he had no idea of smashing records when he began his project, but now the temptation to go one better is irresistible.
"I had no intent on breaking the record this year, it's not something I wanted to do but the opportunity to partnership with Ritz crackers was irresistible," he said.
"I was so excited when they contacted me and I have a lot of gratitude for them doing this with us."
The Gays will be turning on their display next week.
