Milton Keynes town shows off its incredible Christmas advent calendar windows

Every year Stony Stratford has a stunning display of Christmas lights, a switch-on ceremony and a highly-popular lantern parade through the streets.

But this year, faced with Covid restrictions, organisers were forced to cancel the switch-on and the parade.

The lantern volunteers were unanimous that they would still like to do something, so they dusted off our thinking caps and came up with ‘Christmas at Home’.

A spokesman said: "We joined forces with the Stony Community Advent Calendar Project to offer an artistic opportunity for families to light up their homes in Stony Stratford, Galley Hill and Fullers Slade for the whole of the Christmas period.

"We sold lantern kits to make a lantern or window scene at home and allocated an ‘advent number’ to every street. Over 400 kits were sold and

prepared in a matter of weeks - we even managed to rearrange the collection days to distribute them before lockdown 2 commenced."

The theme inspired local families to create an amazing array of colourful lanterns and window displays all around the town, adding in a rainbow motif to thank all the keyworkers and NHS staff who have worked throughout the pandemic.

Funding for the lantern kits was provided by Stony Stratford Town Council, Stony Stratford Business Association, Milton Keynes Community Foundation and the York House Local Giving Fund to help keep the project affordable for all.

"Instead of our usual Lantern Parade, we are making a special video to showcase this year’s amazing creations. The finished video will be posted on the York House Centre website here," said the spokesman.

The Lantern volunteers also set to work turning York House into a giant lantern by decorating the upper floor windows to create a stunning centrepiece for the project. The windows show ‘At Home’ scenes of how they imagine Christmas at York House would have been when it was originally a family home, with the rainbow and heart floating above as symbols of thanks and hope.

The spokesman said: "We hope everyone enjoys spotting all the ‘At Home’ creations as they walk around the town for their ‘daily exercise’ throughout December, thanks to all the families who joined in to make our special little town shine during these difficult times."