A couple of weeks ago I was in St George’s Church, Ramsgate, putting Christmas Tree Decorations on ‘my’ tree. This was one of thirty trees in the Christmas Tree Festival, which has run for fifteen years (only stopped once, by Covid, last year). I filled the tree with hand-made ornaments, originally made for a Christmas celebration at Ushaw in 2020 (I wrote about it here). You can see close-ups of the ornaments in that post. I’m so glad they are getting a proper outing, as things happened very differently last year to the original plan.
St George’s Christmas Tree Festival
The trees in St George’s church are placed on boards, at the height of the top of each pew. They run down the right-hand side of the nave:
There is a second row down the left-hand side:
Hand-made decorations
The decorations on the trees were varied and creative. This is the St George’s Sunday School Tree:
It included this charming ox:
Ramsgate WI (Women’s Institute) offered a tree draped in threaded popcorn garlands and hung with dried orange slices and cinnamon sticks.
Several trees reflected our seaside location. The Pegwell Bay Society had sea-gulls for their tree toppers and included photos of Pegwell Bay and sea-creatures on the branches.
Here’s a closer view (without the red of the overhead heaters!)
Ramsgate Central Harbour Councillors Raushan Ara, Tricia Austin and Becky Wing also chose a seaside theme for their tree, which looked lovely in seaweed and shells.
Other local groups were represented. For example, St Laurence-in-Thanet Changeringers ensured that their tree reflected the theme of bell-ringing. There were bells all over the tree, alongside photos of the bell-ringers themselves.
Knitted tree decorations
The group which produces red poppies for Remembrance Day contributed a tree. These knitted flowers are all handmade.
I spotted some knitting on the Western Undercliff Regeneration group’s tree too, in the shape of a colourful octopus or two:
Living Advent Doors
The large paper stars at the entrance of the church, hung over a cloud of purple fabric, were hand-made by a representative of ‘Living Advent Doors’ (they also had a tree decorated with doors inside the church). This imaginative scheme sees 24 individuals displaying a ‘decorative door’ at their own house for one evening in advent and raising funds for Thanet Shelter and Support. There are more details and photos about this here.
Amanda Jane Textiles offers unique fabrics for sale here, quilt patterns here, classes here and quilts for sale here