The singer thanked her fan for using her song 'to create such a fun spectacle.'
Taylor Swift is sending some Christmas joy one lucky fan's way! Sarah Bailey, a 25-year-old recent college grad from Ohio, recently took to social media to share videos of her family's annual Christmas light show in hopes that Swift, who she considers her "number one inspiration as a person and a musician," would see.
This year, she and her family set the epic experience to Swift's 2019 track, "Christmas Tree Farm," along with other songs including Kelly Clarkson's "Underneath the Tree" and Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You." The idea to include Swift's song actually came from Bailey's dad.
"My dad heard 'Christmas Tree Farm' when it first came out in December 2019 and heard me playing it constantly, and he immediately knew he wanted to use it for the lights during the 2020 season," Bailey tells ET. "My whole family loved Taylor Swift, but I’m definitely her number one fan."
In the caption of her post, Bailey revealed that the event was also for a good cause, as it provided a COVID-safe way for people to drop off food donations. While Bailey's yet to total up the donations they've received, it already seems to have surpassed last year's haul.
"We don’t add it up until the end of the season usually, but last year we had about 230 pounds of food, and $550 money donations to give to the local food bank," she says. "The amount of love and recognition the lights and food donation box has gotten is insane, and I’m so, so excited that more people can learn about what we do and want to help during this crazy and unfortunate year. I am so, so grateful for Taylor Swift."
In her post, Bailey also urged fellow Swifties to tag the singer so she could see the festive display. Bailey got her wish, as Swift sent her a message in response to her videos.
"Sarah! I loved your family's Christmas lights show!!! Thank you (and your dad) so much for using 'Christmas Tree Farm' to create such a fun spectacle," Swift wrote. "I really love how you've chosen to give back by mentioning your local food bank. I've made a donation to Our Community Hunger Center in your hometown. Happy Holidays!"
Bailey, who's also a singer/songwriter, tells ET that she discovered Swift's message while casually scrolling through her DMs.
"I saw her name and I screamed and jumped up. I immediately called everyone I know and posted the message on social media and the response has been incredible," Bailey says. "I’m a musician myself with music on platforms such as Spotify and Apple. Since I became a mega Taylor fan when I was around age 10 or 11, I knew I wanted to be just like her and write my own songs and sing music."
"It’s crazy to think that this could be coming full circle and she could be the reason why so many more people are going to be able to discover me now and listen to what I put out," she continues. "I am coming out with a new single on Friday, Dec. 18th, and I still cannot believe all the love and support I am getting from around the world, and especially from the Swiftie fandom. I’ll love them forever and consider them my family."
Bailey shared Swift's sweet message the same day that the singer was named one of Entertainment Weekly's Entertainers of the Year. The honor came after Swift delighted fans with the surprise release of her latest album, Folklore, which was made secretly in quarantine.
"The only people who knew were the people that I was making it with, my boyfriend, my family, and then my management team. So that's the smallest number of people I've ever had know about something," she tells the magazine. "It felt like such an inner world I was escaping to every day that it almost didn't feel like an album."
"I wasn't making a song and finishing it and going, 'Oh my God, that is catchy.' I wasn't making these things with any purpose in mind," Swift continues. "And so it was almost like having it just be mine was this really sweet, nice, pure part of the world as everything else in the world was burning and crashing and feeling this sickness and sadness. I almost didn't process it as an album. This was just my daydream space."
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