A home Christmas display that has raised over £5,000 towards animal welfare is returning to Nottingham this festive season.

David Carter, 65, is preparing his home in Gamston for its 10th annual Christmas light-up, which has spent the last seven years raising donations for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), at the Radcliffe Animal Centre.

A driver for NHS Out-of-Hours, David managed to raise £3,500 last year for the RSPCA, with the total amount of money donated over the years closing in on £6,000.

David, who is a trustee at the centre, stated that all the donations go towards the care of animals and day-to-day operations.

David said: “We are a national organization that is present throughout the country, but we are independently funded, and receive no funding from the national society, lottery or any governments.

“So, we need all the money we can get.”

In its first year of collecting, David’s Christmas light-up raised only £200; but the donations have since gradually grown.

He said: “I started the lights about 10 years ago because it was something I liked to do, and I only had about 10 sets of lights.

“A few years into it, I thought that if I am going through all this trouble I might as well try and raise money for the society, which is something I saw other people doing, and it took off.

“People started coming to see the lights and they were also prepared to dig into their pockets and give some money for the charity.”

This year, David plans on performing the “Grand Switch On” on 27 November and hopes to exceed last year’s donations of £3,500.

David said: “Times are tough, especially with the cost-of-living crisis and all that.

“But I am encouraged by the responses I have had off Facebook.”

The RSPCA stated that all of the donations from the Christmas light-up goes towards the running cost of their Nottingham facility.

A RSPCA official said: “These donations go towards feeding the animals, maintenance, and staff wages.

“Everything goes towards running our facility.”

David’s Christmas display will be on every day from 4 pm to 9 pm until 1 January.