Proud Vina Shaddick is celebrating Christmas this year with a £3 set of fairy lights she bought 42 years ago - which still has the original bulbs - setting the world record for the Oldest Christmas tree lights.
The Guinness world record for the most lights lit simultaneously on a Christmas tree is 194,672 and was achieved by Kiwanis Malmedy / Haute Fagnes Belgium in Malmedy, Belgium.
Guinness World Records also recognized the world record for the most letters to Santa collected in 24 hours: 1,013 letters, achieved by members of the public in an event organised by the KidzWish Foundation in Stockland Shellharbour, New South Wales, Australia.
Vina, 62, paid £3 for the illuminations at Woolworths in 1969 and she still has the box and spare bulbs. She said: "They've never let me down. They don't make them like this any more."
"I can't imagine a set bought today - which are much pricier - lasting as well as these."
Every December, the retired jeweller drapes the string of multi-coloured lights around her artificial tree - which is itself 27 years old - at the home she shares with son Ross, 33, in Plymouth.
It's all part of a collection of old decorations Vina has including two from the 1950s. She added: "One decoration has the price on the back - 10d - so that must go back a few years, too." |
