YOUNGSTERS at a North-East school have been waiting excitedly for Anita Bainbridge to switch on her Christmas lights.

Mrs Bainbridge, a lunchtime supervisor assistant at Timothy Hackworth Primary School in Shildon, County Durham, and her husband, Dale, have been putting lights outside their home in Queensway, Shildon, for eight years.

Mrs Bainbridge said: "The kids have been asking me when I am going to switch the lights on from the middle of November.

"We do it because there is enough going on to make folks depressed and we want to cheer the place up.''

The couple, who have two sons, Clint, 16, and Kyle, 13, try to buy something new each year. This year's addition is rope lighting.

But there are plenty of older lights too.

Mrs Bainbridge said: "One set of lights is so old its gone rusty but we keep changing the bulbs."