Shelter brings ‘bling' back in this Christmas

Housing and homelessness charity Shelter can help you brighten up the dark days of winter and send festive cheer to all this Christmas with its fantastic new House Bling website - even Stephen Fry has been twittering about it!

HouseBling.org.uk is a new website where you can bling up your house, your neighbours or even add sparkle to the Rover's Return. From the comfort of your chair and with a click of a button you can get creative and decorate a range of buildings from around the world, from Buckingham Palace to the Statue of Liberty.

To bling your house, simply log onto housebling.org.uk:
housebling.org.uk/ enter your chosen postcode, and begin your dazzling transformation using a variety of festive flashing lights and atmospheric snowfall settings. When you are finished you can save a picture of your building in all its sparkling finery and email it on to your friends and family.

The best ‘blings' will be added to Shelter's Flickr gallery flickr.com/photos/shelter/sets/72157622760980117/ to feature alongside blings by well known celebrities such as George Clark and Dick and Dom. You'll be competing with those from many shores, from Australia to San Francisco and the winner not only gets to be best ‘blinger 2009' but will also win an exclusive Shelter John Peel t-shirt.

The House Bling initiative is part of Shelter's Big Build Up to Christmas campaign to help raise money to help thousands of people facing repossession, homelessness or bad housing this Christmas.

 Louise Parkes, director of fundraising at Shelter, said: "This fabulous website is a great way of sending festive cheer at the click of a button. We hope that everyone gives house blinging a go and emails it on to their friends and family.

"Every penny donated will go towards making Christmas a happier, more secure time for hundreds of families across the country."