Prime Minister Boris Johnson today called a Harrogate mum backing her campaign to get the world to ring a bell on Christmas Eve.
Mary Beggs-Reid came up with the idea last month and nearly 500,000 people have already signed up to take part.
Today she received a phone call from Mr Johnson, who told her that he will be taking part at 10 Downing Street with his fiancé Carrie Symonds and their young son Wilfred.
Mary planned to travel to London to meet the Prime Minister but the new tier four restrictions in the capital meant a phone call was more suitable.
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The Christmas Eve doorstep jingle asks people to ring a bell or bang a pan at 6pm for two minutes to “spread festive spirit and help Santa’s sleigh fly”.
With her now famous bell in hand, which will soon become a family heirloom, Mary told the Stray Ferret:
“It’s wonderful, I can’t believe we’ve got the Prime Minister involved. Lots of people from Lapland joined last week, it’s going to reach everywhere.
“There will be a wave of bells on Christmas Eve. We will see it coming from New Zealand and that will build up the excitement even more.
“We will just have two minutes for the children when something amazing and magical will happen, I can’t wait.”
Mary’s inspiration for the event came from the film Elf, where residents of New York sing together to power Santa’s sleigh with their Christmas spirit.
With news that the Christmas relaxation of rules has been reduced to just one day, she thinks that there will be a lot of interest on Thursday.
