Image: Michael Grace
Minehead Christmas lights have raised more than £12,000 for the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, thanks to the Grace family’s festive wonderland in Plover Close, off Seaward Way. The latest display alone raised £2,295 from residents and visitors alike, one of the highest annual totals in the family’s 11 years of festive fundraising for the charity. Thousands of light-emitting diode bulbs lit the 2025 display, which has now become one of Minehead’s most popular Christmas attractions. The family first raised money for the air ambulance charity in 2014, while living in Alcombe. Grace told West Somerset Free Press in January that the family tries to improve on the previous year every Christmas, and that he hopes the display opening on 28 November will be even bigger and better.
A few households down the street now take part, Grace told the Gazette. Planning is a lot of hard work, and he usually begins decorating in October, he told the Gazette. The project, he said, has become “part of our lives throughout the year”.
Michael Grace, who runs a gardening and handyman business, spends weeks building the display with help from his wife Beverley and their four children. Since moving to Plover Close, the displays have grown more ambitious each year, with hundreds of visitors thronging the quiet residential street. Neighbours supported the family by decorating their own homes with Christmas lights, and one described the display as a real community event in which everyone helps.
