A FATHER has slammed the grinches who stole Christmas lights he had put up for his two children hours after they were installed.

Sean Whetstone spent more than two hours installing the decorations outside his home in Orchard Gardens, Effingham on Saturday.

But when the father of two checked on the lights the following morning he discovered they had vanished – much to the dismay of his children Sophia, 12, and Finley, 9.

The 47-year-old told the Advertiser the youngsters had been devastated by the loss of the lights, which included four reindeer, a big Merry Christmas message as well as a star and two sets of icicle lights affixed to the guttering.

“The children are really upset as you can imagine and they have told me that it has ruined Christmas for them, which is really hard to hear,” he said.

“Christmas is supposed to be about giving and goodwill so it is really difficult to explain to children of that age why something like this has happened. The children have been thinking about how somebody was in their front garden and that scares them. They shouldn’t be thinking about that stuff at their age. It has put me off putting more lights up in case they get taken as well. Whoever did steal them; shame on you.”