Three year old Grandson loves Christmas trees, so we took him along the Scunthorpe Festival of Christmas Trees held in our local church. There were over eighty trees and he loved it.
There were trees of all sizes and colours including pink. Local organisations had decorated the trees. As well as baubles, tinsel and Christmas lights, many trees reflected the skills or ethos of the groups sponsoring them. The North Lincolnshire Wood Turners Association had produced beautiful wooden decorations. A local Junior School hung their tree with felt birds sewn by the children. The crafters had festooned their tree with carefully tatted snowflakes. The Healthy Communities Group, Falls awareness had decorated a zimmer frame with pictures of Humpty Dumpty. There was even a tree with branches made from rolled up pages of old magazines by the Waste Management Team of the local council. The local hospice had decorated their tree with bright yellow sunflowers.
The highlight was a beautiful recreation of a 1952 Christmas scene with small christmas tree, old fashioned radio, coal fire with a toy cat sleeping on the peg rug and two long grey stockings hanging from the mantle piece. In a basket by the chair were wooden sticks and paper sticks made from newspaper (do you remember making those?). On the walls were pictures of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. It was a blast of pure nostalgia, appreciated by the Oldies and intriguing to the younger visitors.
In the spirit of Christmas, there was a prayer tree with small picture cards to write a prayer on and hang it on the tree. The local funeral directors had a memory tree with cards to write names of departed loved ones.
This is an annual event arranged by the Rotary Club of Scunthorpe and held on the first two weekends in December. It is a popular local event. Entrance is free but there are boxes for donations to the local hospice. We were greeted as we entered and given a programme. Grandson was given a worksheet and pencil. He was too young for this as it was probably aimed at 6+ , but enjoyed trotting round with it. There were no prizes but children were given a sweet as they left. Refreshments were on sale and also home made preserves and chutneys.
There is a small car park in the church with more parking in the car park of St Hugh’s Church opposite and some on-road parking.
Disabled access is good, although if it is busy, it can get congested as there isn’t a lot of space to manoeuvre a wheel chair or pushchair.
Grandson talked all the way home and fortunately our Christmas tree hasn’t been found wanting.