In pictures: First ever Christmas Tree Festival brings festive joy to Midhurst

Taking place at Midhurst Parish Church from Friday December 13 to Sunday December 15, the event featured a range of Christmas Trees donated by local charities, business groups, community organisations, local schools and youth groups.

With well over fifty trees in total, they ranged in style from the traditional to the highly unorthodox, with free standing trees displayed branch to-branch with hanging trees, trees made out of toilet roll, tin cans and much more.

For organiser Alison Windle, who organised the event with close friends Sarah Lavender and Kirstin Bosley, that breadth and variety was a huge part of the fun. “It all went really well – beyond our wildest dreams. We had more than 700 people come through the door, and we had so many positive remarks,” she said.

"People were just stunned by the creativity, the imagination of all the groups who submitted. I mean for example, we had one local tyre company, submitted a few tyres arranged in the shape of a tree with tinsel on it.”

The trees weren’t the only reason to pop along to Midhurst Parish Church over the weekend. On Saturday evening, alongside the festive decor, was a performance by Midhurst Community Choir, giving residents even more reason to head through the door.

This year’s event was inspired by similar festivals in other parts of the country, and Alison said she’d hoped to bring the community together, giving businesses and community groups a chance to advertise their presence, following on from this year’s success, there’s a chance it could return.

"We certainly want to make it a returning event, but probably not every year,” she explained. “Not because it’s a lot of planning and prep but if you do it every year it sort of waters it down a bit, so maybe every two or three years. We certainly want to continue to do it. The object of the event isn’t to raise money, but to bring the community together; businesses, charities schools, it’s very much a community event, and now that we’ve done it, we can continue to grow from here.”

Images: Classic Revival Photography