Woman goes viral thanks to epic homemade Christmas tree

By Jessica Hehir-Smith via SWNS

This woman spent 36 hours building an incredible self-rotating Christmas tree featuring a twinkling village scene in action - and it's gone viral.

Teacher’s aide Jill Drake, 48, challenged herself to make something a little different for Christmas and let her creative side take over.

Jill, who works with children with learning difficulties, had a dream to see a white Christmas, but health issues changed her travel plans.

She said: “We were supposed to fly to Canada for our very first white Christmas. Nine days before our flight, I was rushed to hospital with a large cancerous tumor in my kidney and scheduled for an emergency nephrectomy.

“Whilst I was in recovery, I kept thinking about what I could do to make Christmas a happy and beautiful time."

Jill, from Queensland, Australia, added: “It was the September school holidays so I knew I had a couple of weeks to build it.

"Once I started and saw how beautiful it was looking, I got a bit excited and ended up working all weekend to finish it.

"We usually have somewhere between four and eight Christmas trees throughout the house, but I wanted something different and amazing for my village.

“I didn’t get to see my white Christmas, so I decided to make it in my own home instead!"

Jill emphasized that, although she loved the project and is delighted with the final result, she never expected it to go viral:

“I was so proud of myself - seeing the combination of the twinkling village scene and the slow rotation for the first time was amazing.

“My family saw it and told me to put a video on Facebook. When that got a good reaction, my kids told me to sign up for TikTok and here we are! My kids at school are very impressed that their very own Mrs. D. has a viral video.

“I was totally blown away by the reaction! Everyone that commented had something nice to say about it. I joked with someone who said that I clearly didn’t own a cat...I have four!

“There were also some great suggestions about how to keep the tree up all year with different themes which I thought was great.

“Loads of people asked if they could buy one! I’m trying to work out logistics but it weighs about 80kg and is HUGE! I’d love to sell them, I just hope I can without charging a small fortune.

“I just want people to enjoy it and fall in love with it the way I have. Christmas is magical for lots of different reasons and I think this just encapsulates that magic perfectly!
'Merry Christmas'!”