Light Up Locally Christmas campaign wins global support

A campaign to get Christmas lights switched on early to boost mental health has seen people around the world share pictures of their decor.

The Light Up Locally campaign was founded by a group of Nottinghamshire mental health workers in October.

Its Facebook page has almost 1,000 members and features festive photos from eager decorators from countries including the US, Canada and Spain.

One of its founders said she was "delighted".

Maria Ditch, a mental health nurse who helped set up the campaign, said it had been a "privilege" to be a part of.

She said she was delighted to see the campaign had achieved its initial objective of providing support to key workers and communities during the pandemic across at least 10 different countries.

"It is truly heart-warming to see the posts and wonderful pictures from people across the globe," she said.

Katie Kent, 40, from North Leverton with Habblesthorpe in Nottinghamshire, put her decorations up on 1 November.

The former teacher said she had been struggling with her mental health during lockdown and looking at the lights with her children has been "brilliant".

She said: "It's not just us putting ours up that's really helped, but seeing everybody else's. It's kind of got the connection in the community going a little bit more.

"Obviously we've not been able to see each other [during lockdown] but us all doing the same thing has been really positive."

Many of the international contributors were alerted to the campaign's page by UK-based friends and relatives.

Karen Diaper, 47, who moved to Edmonton in Canada from Clowne in Derbyshire, said she was invited to share pictures of her early decorations by a cousin from the UK.

She said she had put her decorations up in November because she was finding the pandemic "tough".

"The uncertainty of when we will see things start to get better weighs heavily on some days, more than others," she said.

"I love decorating for Christmas every year, but this year in particular I'm really enjoying the lights, and the feeling of warmth they bring, especially in the cold, dark days that we get here."

Stephanie Jolley, 59, who lives in Mijas Costa in Spain, said she had put her decorations up about a month earlier than usual.

"My husband had tested positive for Covid," she said.

He was totally fine... but we were stuck indoors in quarantine.

"It was a rainy day, we were bored and fed up of TV so I said, 'I have a great idea. Let's put up the tree'.

"It really cheered us up and has done every day since."

Heather Barbosa, 49, who lives in southern California, said she and many of her neighbours put up their decorations at the start of November, earlier than usual.

"We will probably keep our tree up through January to keep the cheer going on," she added.

Dr Juliet Wakefield, a senior lecturer in psychology at Nottingham Trent University, said the early switch-on suggested the lights could "transcend specific celebrations".

"Switching on fairy-lights in our homes and gardens can... allow people throughout the world to feel a shared sense of joy and celebration - something that is especially needed this year," she said.

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