A Canberra man has given Santa's sleigh a run for its money by covering his car in thousands of sparkling lights to spread Christmas cheer. 

If you thought you saw flashing lights cruising up and down Lonsdale or Bunda Street in the city centre over the past week, you weren't imagining it. 

Jordan Wallace and 10 friends spent three days rigging up his car, dubbed "Christmas Car", with 4200 light bulbs. 

"When I was younger there was a ute that used to drive around my suburb with a light-up reindeer in the tray," Mr Wallace said.

"I really wanted to take that spirit to the next level, hence the Christmas Car was born."

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This is the third year Mr Wallace has wired his car and he said it gets bigger and better each year. 

The 21-year-old posted a 23-second clip of the car to Facebook that went viral internationally. 

Not including the vehicle, Mr Wallace said the project cost $400 and estimated it took about 40 hours to complete.

He said the lights were fixed with specialist non-residue cloth tape. 

"The only supplies we really needed were lights and tape, other bits and pieces we needed to power the lights I thankfully already had on hand," he said.

"We also bought some candy canes to hand out on our travels."

In 2015, he tested it out by putting 700 warm white lights on the car and did the same last year but decided  it was time to step things up by using seven different strands of lights. 

He said people's first reaction to the car is surprise.

"As first, a lot of people don't believe their eyes - they look at the car in disbelief,"

"Once the shock fades through we've had nothing but joyous reactions, always thumbs up from passing motorists and cheers from crowds on the street.

"Some of my favourite comments have been from passers-by that expressed how proud they were to live in Canberra and have a community that creates projects like this."

It might come as a surprise, but Mr Wallace said his biggests fans were not children.

"Kids love the car of course, but I'd say it's the people closest to our age, in their 20s that we get the loudest cheers from."

"Some even go as far as asking to ride in the car."