Cumnock’s most famous Christmas decorations have been switched off for another year – but not without another fabulous amount of money being raised for a worthy cause.

Alex and Jackie Weir have been covering their home on Holmburn Road in spectacular festive decorations for almost 20 years.

Last Friday saw the end of this year’s entertainment, when they donated a fabulous sum of £1,178 to Netherthird Community Centre’s new wellbeing suite.

The money will be used to pay for new furniture to support people with mental health, addiction and suicide issues.

With the lights being put away for another year, Alex says he and Jackie remain as proud as ever that they are able to raise this money.

He said: “We never started off doing it for a charity but then after a few years people wanted to come along with collection buckets, so then we decided to try and raise some money from it.

“We always try and keep it local and to help something from the community.

“Really we do it for the kids around here, because they love it when they see me starting to put the lights up. We’ve got a snow machine now that they ask when that’ll be on, so it’s really to capture the imagination of the people around here, because it’s the highlight for a lot of them.

“We just want to thank those that came along and those who have always supported us.”

And work has already begun on next year’s display.

Alex added: “We had lights that were supposed to be for this year but they got delivered after we’d already done the switch on, so they’ll keep for next year.

“We leave the hooks on the walls so they’re ready to do when the time comes.”

Maggie Campbell and Lana Donald from Netherthird Community Centre were on hand to receive the cheque from Alex and Jackie, and Maggie admitted she was thrilled with the kind donation and how much it will help the centre.

“It’s really amazing to get this kind of money,” she said.

“If we didn’t get this kind of donation then we would’ve been looking for second-hand furniture for the suite, so the difference it will make for the service users will be incredible.

“When we found out Alex was going to donate the money to us, we were overwhelmed, because we know how big an occasion it is for the whole town when they switch their lights on.”