Residents bring Christmas spirit to Sarum Avenue

RESIDENTS of Sarum Avenue will be getting into the Christmas spirit next week with a dazzling display of Christmas lights and a community street party, to raise funds for Wiltshire Air Ambulance. 

Houses in the street will be decorated with festive displays that will be switched on, on Saturday 2nd December, straight after the Market Place lights are turned on in the town centre. There will then be a community party in Sarum Avenue for everyone to enjoy. 

Resident Terry Weaver, who is one of the organisers said, “We wanted to raise funds for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance because it’s a charity close to a lot of our hearts in Sarum Avenue. My mother was one of the first people to be airlifted by the WAA and if it wasn’t for them, she wouldn’t be here now.”  

People can visit Sarum Avenue in the run up to Christmas to view the lights and help the residents raise funds. 

“Starting 3rd December, Father Christmas and his elves will be in the street every Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” added Terry. “We’ll go all the way up to Christmas, except Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and we’ll be taking the lights down straight after New Year.” 

Last year, the residents did a Christmas lights display, but Terry said they only started raising funds the week before Christmas. 

“This year we’re starting nice and early and I think there will be thousands of lights on my house. When we did it last year, I made a small hut for the outside of the house and that had about 3,000 lights on it alone,” says Terry. “It’s going to be really good and if we can raise funds for WAA, then even better.

“Last year we raised £450; hopefully we can double that this year.

“We’d like to thank our sponsors TJ Builders, VK Graphics, Huws Gray Builders Merchants, Meads of Melksham and Melksham Scaffolding.”

Pictured top, part of last year’s display