People have been flocking across the country to experience Stowmarket's Christmas magic

Stowmarket’s Christmas Tree Festival is now officially underway, with the opening ceremony having been held on Friday.

Saturday marked the first full day of the festival, which will continue to run until January 4.

Between 10am and 4pm every day, people can visit Stowmarket and explore the 415 trees, which is a significant increase on the 365 on show last year.

Hundreds of people applied to decorate a tree in the two weeks leading up the event, with the creatively decorated trees then being displayed in the parish church, museum, town library and red gables areas of town.

Stowmarket has a habit of hosting great festivals, as we saw during the summer

Festival coordinator Judy Eden said: “This is an event for the community and by the community - there has been a constant stream of people from all over the country.”

If you want to see more pictures, pick up a copy of Friday's edition of Bury Free Press

The festival, which is organised by the local congregation, has been running for 15 years and began with just 80 trees back in 2005.

If Stowmarket's Christmas Tree Festival continues to grow, it could yet come to rival the Christmas Fayre in Bury.