Families across Black Country and Staffordshire set to ring bells for Santa
Families across the world are set to guide Santa to their homes by ringing bells on their doorstep at 6pm tonight.
The campaign was started in October with a Facebook group, and multiple other groups have since been launched encouraging others to join in.
Stafford's town crier Peter Taunton started one group which has since been joined by 18,000 people from as far as Australia.
Mr Taunton said he wanted to create something for his 42 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and is also planning to encourage others to ring a bell at 6pm on New Year's Eve too.
He added: "Going back to October I saw a mention of something about ringing a bell for Santa and I thought that's a great idea.
"I've got 42 grandchildren and great-grandchildren and they've had a rotten year and the young ones they can't really understand why suddenly they can't see their friends so I started a group of family and friends, now the group has reached more than 18,000 people from 800 towns across the world.
"Children can't really celebrate New Year as they're in bed so we're all ringing a bell at 6pm for the kids,
"Each member says they've got their streets and villages doing it too. It's something nice in amongst this horrible situation."
