Bury St Edmunds Christmas trees are dressed with decorations made by schoolchildren in project with the Crafty Foxes
Christmas trees around Bury St Edmunds town centre are now adorned with colourful and shiny hand-crafted decorations made by schoolchildren.
The Crafty Foxes, a community-based craft company run by Michelle Freeman, worked with eight schools to produce hundreds of recycled Christmas decorations made from old CDs that have been donated by residents.
Trees at eight locations within the town – including Angel Hill, the Traverse and Abbey Gardens – are part of the project, which has seen each school craft a different design. As well as the usual trees decorated, this year – the project’s fifth - St Mary’s Church and Moyse’s Hall are joining in.
Yesterday saw the start of the trees being dressed with the decorations, ahead of the town’s Christmas lights switch-on tomorrow.
Those in Angel Hill will have spotted a cherry picker, which was provided by Bury Developments, being used to attach Westgate Community Primary School’s decorations to the tree there.
Volunteers, including those from Bury Abbey Rotary Club, have helped get the decorations up.
Michelle said: “I am delighted to be decorating the towns Christmas trees again and, after the success of last years tiny tree folk, we have a lot to live up to.
“This year the decorations are bright, colourful and shiny and I hope visitors and residents enjoy spotting the different Christmas themes.
“This project provides a great opportunity to involve local children in an ‘off-curricular’ fun activity and by re-cycling the CDs we are able to keep costs down and re-love them by providing a temporary home on the tree and a forever home when they return to the children’s families in January.”
She added: “It’s a real community project and it marks the start of Christmas.”
Rhys, a Year 6 pupil from Westgate Primary who took part in the project, said: “It was really fun colouring in the designs with the pens.”
Katie Dalgoutte, a teacher at Westgate Primary School, said: “It was such a treat for the children to be involved in such a wonderful fun project and lovely to have the Crafty Foxes spend an afternoon with us.”
The Crafty Foxes teamed up with Abbey Gardens Friends for the project, which was funded by the town council.
All the schools involved are:
- Westgate Primary (Angel Hill / mandala design);
- Sebert Wood Community Primary School (Abbey Gardens / robins);
- Sexton’s Manor Community Primary School (the Traverse / reindeer);
- Hardwick Primary School (Moyse’s Hall / snowmen);
- Guildhall Feoffment Community Primary School (St Mary’s Church / angels);
- Guildhall Feoffment Pre-School (the Guildhall / Father Christmas);
- Tollgate Primary School (St Edmundsbury Cathedral / angels);
- St Edmund’s Catholic Primary School (Theatre Royal / baubles).
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