A woman who finally fulfilled her long-time dream to decorate the outside of her home with Christmas lights has said she was left heartbroken when they were blown down by high winds.
For years Katrina Harte has dreamed of decorating her house with lights to celebrate the festive season. And this year she eventually committed to it with the aim of cheering up the local community following a difficult couple of years for the country.
The 59-year-old, from North Shields, said she began searching online for the perfect decorations as early as February. But just days after the much-anticipated switch on gusts of wind took hold of the lights and sent them crashing to the ground, leaving Katrina devastated.
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Katrina said: "It broke my heart when they come down. I was really hurt. The amount of time and money I spent to get them up there and then the damn wind came along and destroyed everything."
Katrina said she spent around £1,000 on the three decorations she fixed to the top of her house which were blown down by high winds on Thursday and Friday night, just five days after she switched them on for the community.
Fortunately, with the exception of a few scratches, Katrina has managed to salvage the lights and with the help of a friend has fixed them back to the house, this time using stronger fixtures.
She has also fixed the LED rope Christmas tree on her lawn, which was also damaged by the weather. And after spending the weekend fixing her display she was able to switch her decorations back on.
Katrina said: "I got myself really upset over it but I thought I can't let this beat me so when the wind calmed down I made a start on fixing them back up."
She added: "I'm just trying to cheer the whole area up because everything has been such a mess in the country. I haven't just done this for me, I've done it for everybody."
Katrina, who is a qualified electrical engineer, claims that nobody else in the UK will have the same lights which she has used in her display because rather than buying them from a shop she has researched which manufacturers create the lights which can be seen on lampposts along the highstreets.
She added that due to the weather and her poor health the display took four days to create.
Katrina said: "I'm getting old and I thought it's about time I finally put the decorations up.
"I did the switch on early because everyone seems so saddened at the moment with everything that's going on so I wanted to cheer myself and other people up. So I put some Christmas music on and people came along for the switch on and it was a really lovely atmosphere."
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