An initiative to encourage people to visit Farnham town centre has gone viral and reached nearly ten million people on social media.

The video, which has been watched over 4.5million times by people around the world, shows local artist Tom Baker using snow paint to create a picture of a baby penguin with its mum and dad on the window of a local shop. 

The snow window is one of 27 that has been commissioned by Farnham Town Council and will form a Christmas winter wonderland walking trail around Farnham from 1 December. 

The Christmas window project came to fruition after the Town Council was approached by shop owner Siri Manning from Ruby Jones after she saw images online of snow windows in a nearby town. Siri says: “I thought that creating a winter wonderland trail of snow windows would be a wonderful way to unite Farnham’s independent shops and to encourage people to shop local. The windows look really pretty and with all the attention on social media, I’m sure many Christmas shoppers will be making a beeline for Farnham.” 

Farnham Town Council delivered the project having secured a grant through Waverley Waverley Borough Council from the European Regional Development Fund, and contributions from local businesses that have taken part.

Councillor Pat Evans, Lead Member for Tourism and Events says: “Thanks to Siri’s enthusiasm, there has been a brilliant response to this project from retailers. The walking trail leaflet will be available to download from www.farnham.gov.uk from 1 December. Anybody who correctly locates the 27 snow windows will be entered into a free prize draw and will in with a chance of winning one of three hampers made up from donations from the participating retailers. 

“The trail is suitable for everybody. I do recommend taking your time as every window is unique and many include design details relevant to the shop – for example, look out for the sugar mouse in the window of the sweet shop!”

Anybody who is unable to visit Farnham in person can still benefit from what the independent shops have to offer by browsing www.wearefarnham.co.uk which is Farnham’s very own online market place. For those who want to have a go at creating their own snow window, visit www.snowwindows.com for a variety of easy-to-use stencils and stickers.