Westcliff Christmas lights display with Ferris wheel

Martin Pyke, 63, has delighted passers by at his house in Westbourne Grove, with his hand-built displays of Christmas animatronics, moving displays and interactive Christmas decorations.

Among Martin’s display are 14 different motorised decorations including a flying Santa, a moving penguin ski lodge and a Christmas Ferris wheel.

“It was quite slow but it’s picked up because of the weather, I belong to a number of Facebook groups, and everyone has been saying this is the worst Christmas weatherwise. It’s improving now, hopefully, looking at the weather but there will be other nights we cannot operate,” Martin said.

“We are fortunate because we are on a major road. We get a lot of passing traffic. If we were tucked away, we wouldn’t be as successful because you get the passing traffic, it’s been quite good this year and we have really picked up.

“We have been unable to run for over four nights due to the conditions, we have had to put posters out this year stating we are unable to run in the rain and to be honest, no one wants to watch a Christmas show in the pouring rain,” Martin said.

Wow - Stunning Christmas display (Image: Newsquest)

Martin uses his displays to fundraise for Macmillan’s Cancer charity, due to his wife having been affected by cancer in the past.

“A lot of people don’t have the same issues, there are a lot of electric motors that I have to protect and cover up, it’s been lovely though to see the children we had one little girl who came with her dad and her eyes lit up, she was enthused by the lights and the moving parts,” Martin said.

All of Martin’s creations are sprung from his imagination and he hand builds and designs his range of Christmas contraptions.

Martin said: “People come up to me and ask, “did you buy it” and then they ask “did you used to be an engineer” and I say no, I worked in a bank, I’ve always been very practical and I look at ideas, deconstruct them and try to rebuild them. It takes a lot of trial and error.”