RESIDENTS in a dale village created a magical living advent calendar to brighten up the festive period.
Twenty-four households in Cotherstone decorated windows, and in one instance the side of their home, to create a unique village living advent calendar.
Then each window was ceremoniously “switched on” and revealed at 5.30pm each evening throughout December, culminating on Christmas Eve.
There was a distinctly festive theme throughout with appearances from Santa Claus, the Nutcracker, Christmas Trees and even the Queen.
Rachel Atkinson said: “I organised it on behalf of the Friends of Cotherstone School.
“The FOCS usually do a lights switch-on, on the village green at the beginning of December to raise funds, but we were not allowed to do that this year because of Covid restrictions.”
A map of all the participating homes was created and posted in the village’s noticeboards, as well as on a special Facebook group.
Each evening residents were able to view the switch-on in person, or tune into the group and watch the opening live.
Ms Atkinson added: “We just wanted to create a bit of community cohesion over the festive season given the shocker of a year that we’ve had. Even those who didn’t do a window seem to have gone all out with lights this year so the village is quite a spectacle after dark.”
