Christmas window trail to bring festive spirit to residents of village on outskirts of Calderdale

The charity initiative in Outlane runs from December 1 to 24 and will raise money for Andy's Man Club and local churches.

Last year's event raised more than £3,000 for Overgate Hospice.

Residents are invited to walk around the village using a trail map, spotting the illuminated Christmas windows, with each one representing a letter of the alphabet.

They then fill in what they have seen on their trail sheet and submit it to go into a prize draw.

"The idea came from going to Saltaire Living Advent Calendar a few years ago," said organiser Sarah Austin-Scott, who has lived in Outlane for 24 years.

"I wanted a theme to draw the windows together but also to avoid repeats.

"We got positive feedback about the trail last year and were also overwhelmed with the generosity of raffle donators - many of them small businesses."

This year's event will be raising money for Outlane Methodist Church and St Mary Magdalene Church, both on New Hey Road.

"I chose to support them as both are raising money for essential building work and they are vital to the village," Sarah said.

"As as we haven’t got a village hall, all the community activities are held in one or the other.

"The trail is mainly a solo project but I have had support with some parts of it - generating raffle prizes and some of the creative parts.

"The refreshments are also totally in the hands of the churches - they are taking on them as their contribution.

"Once the raffle tickets are here though I am hoping members of the group will sell them and the trail sheets are sold in most of the businesses in the village which is great."Householders volunteer to be part of the trail. I did a leaflet drop of 400 initially to generate interest and also put up posters in the village.

"Those interested were then put into a WhatsApp group and chose what letter they wanted to represent in their window.

"It is a community project though - without householders doing windows it wouldn’t happen."

For more details, visit Outlane Christmas Windows Trail 2022 on Facebook.