Canberra brightens up for Guinness record

Santa won't have any trouble finding his way to Canberra this year with almost 1.2 million Christmas lights beaming out of the city centre.

Canberra barrister David Richards co-ordinated the world-record light display to raise money for SIDS and Kids.

Last year, he took out the Guinness World Record for most lights on a residential house, with 502,165 bulbs.

He's well and truly busted that now with 1,194,380 light bulbs gracing the walkways of Canberra's CBD - taking out the record for largest LED light image display.

"You immerse yourself into a tunnel of a mass of different colours of lights that are all dancing to the music," Mr Richards to ABC radio on Friday.

"There's so many lights, believe it or not, the display works quite well during daylight hours."

Utility company ActewAGL has donated green electricity to power the display and the business community gave their time and expertise to help Mr Richards construct it.

The strings of lights total 120km - enough to stretch from Canberra to Cooma and then some, Mr Richards said.

But he's already looking towards an even bigger show next year: "We can't quite get to Sydney yet but we're working on that."

ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher will switch on the display on Friday night. It runs nightly until New Year's Eve.