On a drizzly Wednesday, the sun rapidly setting and cloaking a small cul-de-sac in Stonehaven in darkness, houses are suddenly brought to life as the clock chimes 3.30pm.

One after the other, homes flicker in the dimming light, dripping icicles illuminated in doorways and windows, picked out in strings of light like gingerbread houses while cheerful festive inflatables bob in the breeze.

For the residents of Malcolm's Way, Christmas would not be the same without the entire street illuminated in lights.

Awarded the happiest place in Aberdeenshire this year, this is the street determined to bring a sense of community to a small seaside town.

Each year, the residents host their own Christmas light display, nominating different charities to benefit from donations from passing members of the public.

Over the past five years, more than £60,000 has been raised by its residents for various causes; a desperately needed dialysis machine, young cancer victims supported through a Nippy Dip, through street parties and bucket rustling outside Pittodrie Stadium in nearby Aberdeen.

But it is the Christmas display that the small street has become best known for. And it all began with a small strip of lights outlining Patricia Bruce's garden in 2009.

On moving to the area with her husband Tom and young daughter Melanie, Patricia joked the display looked like a 'runway', and so the following year the family went all out to decorate their house for Christmas.

Soon after, their neighbours began to join in the fun. Families with children who had flown the nest started to hang lights regardless, and nearby neighbours, who weren't even part of the street, begun taking part to brighten up the area.

Now Malcolm's Way's festive lights are a fond reminder of Patricia's Christmas-loving husband.

Diagnosed with pseudomyxoma peritonei, a rare cancer of the appendix, just months after their second child Daniel arrived, Tom was still determined to keep up the neighbourhood tradition.

With the weight of a cancer diagnosis on his shoulders, he remained positive and headed out to decorate the family lawn just as he had for the previous five years.

Tom passed away in August 2015, but before he died, he expressed to his wife his wish for their friends to continue the tradition that he loved so dearly.

"Christmas was one of Tom's favourite seasons," explains Patricia. "He would take a week off to do all the lights."

"I can't put up the lights without thinking of him."

This year the group have decided to honour their friend by raising money for Friends of Anchor for a second year, a local charity which supports cancer sufferers in the north-east and supported the Bruce family towards the end of Tom's life.

"I keep following Friends of Anchor's work even though we aren't using it anymore and I thought that's a good place to put the money," Patricia says.

Having raised around £7,000 for Cash for Kids in the summer, the residents agreed to return to the cancer charity to help raise even more in memory of their friend and husband.

Stonehaven, as Patricia explains, has been affected by the oil and gas downturn and it even affected their own mood about hosting such an event in times of hardship.

But the neighbours of Malcolm's Way were determined to keep going despite the current climate, surprising even Patricia when the entire street took part for the first time this year.

"When we started it was just four houses and that was all," she says. This year, the entire street is aglow.

"I was so overwhelmed that everyone, the whole street, has Christmas lights," she says.

"Every single house. We didn't ask, we didn't do anything different from last year, and then suddenly every single house was lit up."

Malcolm's Way has now become so popular that the street host their own Christmas light switch on at the start of December to rival the town's official parade; a film projected to hundreds of people gathered in the street from a large television, sipping mulled wine and cups of soup paid for and served up by the neighbours with a smile.

While the official switch on is the main draw for visitors, with more than £1000 raised for charity on its opening night, the residents keep illuminating their homes throughout December.

Many cars queue well into the evening for a short drive around the display, or folk wander about wrapped up in scarves and hats to throw pennies and pounds into the charity buckets outside the houses.

Even on a dreary Wednesday, a small bus filled with wheelchair users suddenly rounds the corner for the passengers to take in the lights.

A few families start to meander along the pavement, puddles reflecting the blues, greens and pinks from the flashing bulbs to look at inflatable Frozen characters and giant teddy bears.

"We've had Carronhill special school come in," says neighbour Clara Maitland.

"We've had a nursing home from Laurencekirk, they had a bus load up the other day. It's super great that the community alone is embracing it."

The residents hope to raise £5000 for Friend of Anchor in 2016 but are open to choosing a different cause next year.

"The idea is to always help those who are in need of something in the community," says Patricia.

"The idea is always to help someone but doing it together. We are the happiest street in Aberdeenshire for a reason."

For Patricia's particular display this year, her pride and joy is the tree at the bottom of her garden, groaning under the weight of baubles and lights.

A neighbour mentioned it looked like a wishing tree and she hopes next year visitors will put a separate donation in a bucket to hang their own bauble in memory of a loved one.

"It's a very special tree for me and everyone was talking about how beautiful it was and the lights," she says.

It will, she adds, always have Tom around it.