A Perfect Prelude to Christmas

The Parish Church St. Mary's, Haddenham was the venue for the first ever Christmas Tree Festival in the village last week, and the event attracted many hundreds of visitors from far and wide.

Each tree had been contributed and decorated by a different local organisation, and the variety, imagination and creativity was quite remarkable — some displays raising visitors' smiles with their delightful touches of humour, while others impressed through their artistic expression and inventiveness.

Not only were visitors beguiled (see some of their comments, below), but much pleasure had clearly been enjoyed by those involved in crafting the displays, engaging children and adults from over 25 different organisations in Haddenham.

Two charities will benefit from the generous donations received from visitors to the Christmas Tree Festival: Friends of St. Mary's, whose focus is on the maintaining the fabric of the church building in Haddenham; and Bucks Community Foundation, which is a channel of support to a wide range of charitable initiatives across Buckinghamshire. Over £500 will go to each of these two charities.

For more photographs, please see our GALLERIES

Here is a random selection of comments left in the visitors' book:

'Such imaginative and creative displays'

'The perfect prelude to my Christmas celebrations — thank you all'

'A great community idea'

'Wonderful — so proud of Haddenham'

'Provided me with some light at a very difficult time — thank you'

'Absolutely stunning — gave me a warm Christmassy feeling'

'Really captures all that Haddenham has to offer. Well done!'

'Stunning and wonderful ideas — great cake too!'

'Lovely display of community spirit'

'I loved the Brownie tree because I made it!'

'Wow! How to unleash the creative spirit in the village'

'What a wonderful experience, a lovely addition to our Christmas season'

'Hope to see it back next year'

'Fantastic display. Very festive and a lovely idea to get the whole community involved'

'Aroma of spice in the porch — soft music to welcome. A living community in the decorated trees'

'Lovely imaginative displays depicting organisations that do such great work'

'Full of festive cheer!'