Aberthin's advent trail has once again been a success by raising over £800 for the Vale foodbank and bringing the village together despite Covid restrictions.

Organised by Rachel Jones, Kate Watts and Katrina Jackson, this year's trail began on 19 December and participants revealed their windows on a Facebook group.

As well as the annual map and calendar, this year's trail included a questionnaire for families to fill out together and send back to the organisers in specially-designed post-boxes.

"It's been really successful," said Katrina Jackson.

"Previously it was lovely because you'd meet everyone in the village.

"On the date their window was revealed, people would open their house so people come to watch a countdown.

"Some people would invite everyone in for mince pies, others might have some chocolate outside.

"Every night of the week became a Christmas party, especially at weekends. That was a lovely element.

"One of our villagers John Moore, actually passed away with Covid earlier in the year. For him it was one of the highlights each year.

"He was an older man, and it would give him an opportunity to meet up with different villagers," she said.

However, Covid-19 restrictions prevented the village from congregating outside, let alone going into each other's houses.

But the organisers still wanted the trail to happen, so they came up with a creative solution.

"It's been such a tough year and it's such a lovely community thing to do," said Katrina.

"We came up with the format that everyone would still have their number and then from 19 December through advent they would open, instead of each day.

"A lot of houses still wanted to light their window on the day so they posted on our Facebook page.

"Even if we weren't all together, we still had people doing it.

"On Christmas Eve Rachel and I got together to do the trail, and the number of families out doing the trail was lovely to see.

"Even though people couldn't meet up, they were still able to pass in the street and see each other safely.

"We were really proud to be involved in something that brought everyone together," she said.

This year's questionnaire included questions such as 'how many stars are in a window?', 'what's hidden in the corner?', 'window number three is a cracker, what the joke should be?'.

Another change this year was only allowing monetary donations, as it is unsafe to donate food items to the Vale Foodbank with Covid-19.

The trail has raised £590 on JustGiving and extra donations make the total £870. The money will help local people facing food poverty.

There is still time to donate: visit the JustGiving page here .