Warwick church's Christmas tree festival taking on a new format

The team at St Mary’s Church in Warwick has launched a virtual equivalent of its popular Christmas Tree Festival.

Every year on Victorian Evening, which kicks off the festive season in the town, the church team also launches their festival featuring many trees that have been decorated by charities, organisations and school children.

Like many events, this year's Victorian Evening has been cancelled due to the pandemic.

The second lockdown and the pandemic also meant the church team were unable to host the festival in the Church premises so they have created a 'virtual Christmas tree festival' instead.

A special website has been made which showcases pictures of trees and seasonal messages from 45 of the Warwick businesses, schools, and charities that have supported the festival in previous years.

Helen Fitzpatrick, one of the volunteers at St Mary's Church, said: "With us not being able to function as we would normally, St Mary's members wanted to engage with the community.

"It is an absolute pleasure to have helped set up this virtual Christmas tree festival as a way of spreading positive and good cheer for the community throughout Warwick.

"We are extremely grateful to all the people who have sent us lovely messages and we hope everyone has a look at the website and that they enjoy looking at some of the beautiful Christmas trees."

The festival website also includes details of services to be held and streamed from St Mary’s over the Christmas period, a message from the Mayor of Warwick, Cllr Terry Morris, and photos from the activities held at the festival in previous years.

These include the popular cafe, a visit from Father Christmas, and carols from Royal Spa Brass.

Father Christmas has also sent a special message for the children of Warwick.

On the homepage of the website, the Rector of St Mary’s, Vaughan Roberts, also introduces festival and promises that the event will return in 2021, bigger than ever.

The website will run until January 6.

To visit the website go to: https://www.stmaryschristmas.org.uk/