MILLIONS of people are about to look in wonder at the work of a company from Ongar as the Christmas lights go up in the West End.

For more than 50 years Piggotts of London Road in Stanford Rivers, has been making the festive lights that have formed the backdrop for the country’s biggest commercial event of the year, and the company shows no signs of stopping having just signed a new four-year deal with the managers of Oxford Street.

Managing director Nick McLaren said: “We are flat out at the moment. As it stands Oxford Street will be finished this Thursday and we start the lights at Harrods on Wednesday. We also start installation on Regent Street on Sunday, that's going to take us another week and then we start Marylebone.

"This year it's more of a fun Christmas message with giant 3D presents and parcels. Hopefully this year will be the best ever.”

A team of ten staff at Piggotts have been working on the Oxford Street lights alone for the past six weeks while a separate group of nine will spend two weeks on installation work.

Mr McLaren said he was confident the lights will all be finished in comfortable time before the big switch on November 3 which this year will be carried out by Hollywood star Jim Carrey.

“We have got innovative design, reliability and a proven track record- we have never missed a turn-on,” he said.

“We're very excited about the display for Oxford Street. We think it'll maintain its reputation as one of the best around.”

Formed in 1780, Piggotts now has one of the biggest lighting portfolios around with clients as far afield as Edinburgh, Staffordshire and Abergavenny.

Mr McLaren said: “We have been fortunate to have a very similar year to last year. We haven't experienced any significant drop in turnover although we have found a lot of work has been last minute.”