Community rallies round for Woolpit festival of decorated Christmas trees

A village community rallied round to decorate Christmas trees with tea cups, poppies, golf balls, flowers and butterflies for a popular festival.

Various organisations and individuals added their unique touch to 33 trees at the Woolpit Festival of Decorated Christmas Trees which attracted about 700 people over the weekend.

Organisers hope the seventh annual event will match last year’s £3,000 fund-raising total in aid of St Mary’s Church, which hosted the festival.

Among those who decorated a tree was Woolpit Drama Club using items from a recent production, Stowmarket Golf Centre made poppies and displayed red golf balls and Woolpit Garden Club made cardboard flowers. Another lady decorated a tree with items from vintage games such as scrabble and ludo while Teacups Tea Rooms got customers to colour in cardboard cut outs of cups and saucers. There was a ‘Peace on Earth 1914’ tableau depicting a British trench dressed with World War One memorabilia, which will be availabe to see throughout Christmas.

Mary Hughes, co-organiser with Jennifer Baker, said: “It brings the whole village together and it’s very well supported. The help from the people in the village is tremendous. We couldn’t do it without them.”