Burton Overy Christmas Tree Festival

18th December 2023 | Charity, Churches, What's On

The twenty second Burton Overy Christmas Tree Festival since the year 2000, took place at St Andrew’s Church, during the weekend of the 1st- 3rd December.

The small church lends itself to the festival, as its size is perfect to be filled with over 50 beautifully decorated and lit Christmas trees. All shapes and sizes. Once again it was very well attended. Perhaps some of the youngsters who attended the first festival brought their own offspring this year? To many, it marks the beginning of Christmas.

A good percentage of this year’s contributors have entered a tree every year, coming up with amazing new ideas and themes.

Winners

Adult Section

  • 1st – Jo Taylor with her ‘Orangery Tree’
  • 2nd – Jenny and Liz with ‘Feathered Friends’
  • 3rd – local farmer Nicola Langton with ‘John Ray Deere’.

Children’s Section

  • Way out in front 1st – ‘While Shepherds Watch’ by St Cuthbert’s C of E Primary School
  • 2nd – ‘Plec-tree-um’ by Katharine and Bruce MacKinnon
  • 3rd – ‘The Story of Christmas’ by Charlotte Dyer.

Well done the winners. Congratulations to ALL the entrants who spent hours and hours putting their creations together, many with beautiful hand-made tree ornaments and decorations. A special mention goes to E.C Gilbert with their tree ‘Where Robins appear, loved ones are near’. Visitors were invited to place a label on the tree to remember a loved one. At the end of the festival the tree was full of loving messages, together with the many robins, amongst the branches.

In addition to the Tree Festival there were a number of stalls in the Village Hall. Folk could enjoy a cuppa and a piece of cake as they searched for a Christmas gift.

Roughly 1,300 adults attended the festival. The profits go to the Church, the Village Hall and nominated charity, MS Therapy Centre, Leicester.

Robert Brown headed a large team of ‘CTF’ volunteers from the village. Huge thanks goes to Robert’s team for making the festival a great success again, despite the cold weather.

Graham Thompson