Christmas Eve bell ringing event organised by Scots women hits 150k milestone

A festive bell ringing event originally organised to take place only in Forth Valley has gone global and hit the milestone of 150K members in two weeks.

Lauren Sinclair, from Falkirk.

Lauren Sinclair, 36, from Falkirk, created the Facebook page on Saturday October 24 at 2.30pm with the goal of spreading cheer and ‘keeping Christmas alive’ by encouraging her community to stand on their doorsteps ringing bells at 6pm on Christmas Eve.

Within four days the event had attracted over 80K people and continues to grow, hitting 150K earlier today.

This morning Ms Sinclair said: “I’d just like to say a massive thank you to every single person in our group.

Lauren Sinclair, from Falkirk, created a Facebook page, Worldwide Santas Xmas eve Jingle, with the help of friend, Terri Niven.

“And a massive thanks to all of the churches who have got involved so far too.”

As the page grew Ms Sinclair teamed up with singer Dionne Hickey to raise money for the Maggies Centre in Forth Valley. So far they have raised £401 and have a target of £1000.

Ms Sinclair has been blown away by the response to her page saying she expected a maximum of 1,000 people,

She said: “It’s exploded. Originally it was just planned for Forth Valley because that’s where I’m from, but in less than one day we had people join from all over the world.

Ms Sinclair continued: “It's like going out and clapping on your doorstep for the NHS, we're now jingling our bells for the sake of Christmas spirit.

"Covid took a lot from a lot of people this year, and we're trying to basically show the virus that it's not winning. We are going to win this fight.”

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