Erin Fitzgibbon and David Neilson are putting on their famous lights display in honour of their daughter

Each year Erin Fitzgibbon and David Neilson put on an extravagant Christmas light show and take donations to give to local charities.

This year will be the first year that their donation will be named Niki's Gift in honour of their daughter Tenieka Fitzgibbon.

"I promised her I would finish the lights for her this year," Ms Fitzgibbon said.

"Going forward, this will be the first year that the donations we raise will be Niki's Gift. It'll be a gift from Tenieka to try to keep her legacy going.

"In a roundabout way, Tenieka was very instrumental in starting this."

Tenieka passed away in early November at the age of 21 after suffering cerebral palsy and scoliosis.

Caring for her was a full-time job for Ms Fitzgibbon.

Ms Fitzgibbon began creating extravagant Christmas light displays in 2006 and subsequently created the Facebook page Clarence Town Christmas Lights.

Since then the display has grown into an entire town affair with people travelling from all around Australia to see the lights.

"I think more people travel from outside Clarence Town to see the lights than locals," Ms Fitzgibbon said.

"We seem to get a lot of people visiting from all over Australia. Regularly we get people from Newcastle and a lot from Medowie way. We have quite a few people from all over the place."

Last year the couple raised money for a five-year-old girl from Raymond Terrace named Shannon who suffered from neuroblastoma. Shannon passed away earlier this year.

Now the couple has decided to donate the funds towards a young woman, Ella Rusak who has been battling stage four bowel cancer for the past three years.

Over these three years 31-year-old Ms Rusak has undertaken 60 rounds of chemotherapy however it has recently stopped working with the only other route being clinical trials.

Luckily, she was able to qualify for clinical trials in Sydney and is now trying to create as much awareness as she can around bowel cancer, especially in younger patients.

Mr Neilson is nervous looking ahead to the start of the lights display because of the tumultuous few months that the couple has experienced. "We're a little bit worried about how we're going to go this year," he said. "But we've got to give it our best shot and see how we go."

As well as the regular light show the couple will also have wristbands honouring Tenieka saying In Loving Memory of Tenieka, Christmas 2023.

The lights will officially be powered up on Friday, December 1. The display is located at 48 Sheriff Street, Clarence Town.

For more information or to see pictures visit the Clarence Town Christmas Lights Facebook page.