PEOPLE across the country have been digging out their decorations.

But for one Hampshire family, Christmas will look a little different this year – after they transformed their dining room wall into a giant festive mural.

Complete with snowman and decorated tree, the idea came when Sharon Lappage, from Castle Road, Bitterne Park, Southampton, was decorating her home after it was extended.

After the 45-year-old stripped the wallpaper she invited her children Tom, 10, and Summer, seven, and friend Linda Murray, 42, a carer from Trent Road, Midanbury, and her children Connor, 10, and Cameron Cracknell, eight, to paint the wall.

Now the painting has become the centrepiece of the home.

Sharon, an invigilator and cover supervisor at Sholing Technology College, said: “I love it. It’s nice to have something that nobody else has got. We’ve already got our biggest decoration up now.

“It’s the only time I’m going to let my kids paint on the wall.

“It got to the stage that the kids had had enough and we had this gap so we painted reindeer. It became a bit of an obsession. We made more mess than the kids did.

“My dad was really creative. He would have loved to see something like this.”

Sharon’s husband, Chris Lappage, 42, a Network Rail track welder, said: “I absolutely adore it. It’s a shame though that we’ll have to get rid of it because we’re not the sort of family that do Christmas all year round.

“We’ll wallpaper over it for someone to find in years to come.”

He added: “Sharon and Summer are often creating things but this is by far the biggest.”

  • Have you done something spectacular to decorate your home this Christmas? Contact our very own Christmas fairy, Daily Echo reporter Rebecca Pearson, on 02380 424 495 or email her at rebecca.pearson@dailyecho.co.uk