Sparkle-effect in the background

I wanted to make a neat webdesign with an awesome image in the background and thought of stuff like this. Do you have any idea, how to do this?

You can create this effect in Photoshop. I did see a tutorial creating something similar not long ago. Just can't remember where. I'll post the link if I bump into it. Or maybe some other Smasher knows about a tutorial concerning this effect.

Hey I took that photo!

Here is how I did it. While trying to take photos of my Christmas tree I found that it was too dark for my auto focus to work, so I switched it off on my lens. I then zoomed in as close as my lens will zoom. Since the auto focus is turned off the lights on the tree are now thrown out of focus. Thus results in funky photos!