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Celebrating Trees and Christmas
With Christmas fast-approaching, the only trees we tend to think about are of the Christmas variety- decorated in twinkling lights, baubles and tinsel.
But families have joined together with the Wildlife Trust to celebrate all trees at our annual ‘Tree Dressing’ events.
Tree dressing is based on old customs from all over the world where people come together to decorate trees in natural and recycled products to celebrate their value and importance.
And that’s exactly what happened on a cold and crisp winter afternoon at Ramsey Heights in Cambridgeshire, Lings in Northamptonshire and Southey Wood Nature Reserve near Peterborough.
The Great Fen was buzzing with the sound of Christmas cheer as children and adults made festive decorations, lanterns and wreaths. One child made at least six fat-seed balls for his garden at home and said “I hope the robins come for Christmas”.
Everyone rounded off the afternoon by enjoying the glow of the lanterns hanging in the trees.
At Lings over 50 children and their families came along and enjoyed making apple bird-feeders, beeswax candles and hedgehog leaf-collage calendars.
Afterwards everyone took part in an ‘Earth walk’ around the nature reserve to discover all about the sights, sounds and smells of the woodland.
Louise Tuffin, Community Involvement Officer, was there: “At the end of the afternoon we all went out and dressed a tree with some of the things we had made, and everyone had something to take away with them too! It really was a great afternoon and we all thoroughly enjoyed it”
Southey Wood Nature Reserve, a Forestry Commission site, hosted more than 35 families. It is the first event at the wood since a number of improvements have been carried out to make it more accessible for families.
The children and their families got into the Christmas spirit by making tree cookies, baubles from recycled carrier bags, pine cone owls and beeswax candles. The afternoon was rounded off by placing decorated glass jars with tea lights onto the trees.
Community Wildlife Officer Rachel Price says of the event “The atmosphere was really fantastic. We had a lovely time and a camp fire for keeping us warm. We even toasted popcorn”.
To find out about our events taking place near you visit our ‘events’ page.