BANNAWELL Street residents are joining together in the days before Christmas to stage their very own Advent Calendar, lighting up a new decorated front window in the street each evening.

Each resident is being allocated an evening to light up their decorated window for the first time.

The first one was illuminated on Tuesday (December 1) just as it got dark, and by Christmas Eve, the whole street will be lit up in a Christmassy tableau for everyone to enjoy.

The idea was the brainchild of resident Helen Costello. Each household is choosing a charity to support, with a bucket for collections.

Mia Alaoui, who lives at number 71 in the street, is among those taking part and is currently working on her window, which is going to be a tableau illuminated by lights on the tree by her front door.

‘I have bought a beautiful 1940s sledge and I am going to try and do something with Father Christmas.’ She was trying to work out how to suspend the sleigh from an upstairs window, she said.

‘Everyone is doing something different. What we are hoping is that we will get all the kids out to watch the lights being switched on and each house will have a charity they are collecting for. I’m going to be predominantly collecting for St Luke’s because one of the mums in Tavistock, her husband recently died and St Luke’s looked after him very very well. A lady in the street also passed away recently was cared for there.’

She said each window would be switched on at 5pm, just as it was getting dark.

The idea comes from Scandinavia. Mia, Helen and their neighbours have been planning it for weeks, after putting their heads together to come up with a way of bringing Christmas cheer when so much has had to be cancelled due to Covid-19.

‘It is to bring some Christmas joy to the street,’ she said.

Teresa Craddock, who lives half way up the street, has the honour of being No 1. She has a Christmas tree with fake snow on the branches and trinkets her children made dating back years, which she will display in her living room window.

Speaking before the switch on on Tuesday evening, she said: ‘I put this tree up every year, with the snow on the branches. Last year, there was a little boy going past and I heard him say “mummy, it is snowing indoors”. It was just magical.’