Brightlingsea Christmas Tree Festival

We are delighted to announce that public votes have been counted and verified and the winners of the 2023 Brightlingsea Christmas Tree Festival Are:

Adult

1st – Joseph’s Carpen-Tree – Adrian Ryder

2nd – The Twelve Knits of Christmas – The Holy Mowers

Child

1st – Dale Chihuly Sculpture Tree – The Colne Community School

2nd – Charlie and the Chocolate Factree – Ladybirds Pre-School Thorrington

Special Mention – Hanging With My Gnomies – Amy Carter

The historic All Saints’ Church is the traditional home of Brightlingsea Christmas Tree Festival, but last year for the 2022 edition the Festival moved temporarily to its sister church St James’ in Victoria Place while essential restoration and construction work was undertaken at All Saints’. We are delighted to confirm that the restoration work and the building of a new toilet and kitchen facility have now been completed and that for 2023 Brightlingsea Christmas Tree Festival will once again return to its proper home.

The restoration work included essential repairs to the famous church tower, which is such a vital landmark to the local community. The completion of the new toilets and kitchen facility will be a great benefit to our festival allowing us to further improve the refreshments we can offer and meaning no more treks down the path to the port-a-loos! Money raised by the Festival was used to help fund this work and we are all looking forward to seeing the new facilities in action this year.

The 2023 Festival will take place from Friday 8 to Sunday 10 December and you can now enter your tree for the festival via our online entry form.

Image courtesy of David White

Brightlingsea Christmas Tree Festival benefits our whole community. For our visitors it is a wonderful festive experience enjoying the spectacle of the massed Christmas trees, our glorious gift shop and scrumptious larder, delicious home made refreshments, live music throughout the day, an opportunity to meet with friends old and new, and the truly unique atmosphere of our beloved All Saints’ Church at this very special time of year.

For those that create trees its an opportunity to let their imaginations run riot. Watching the joy on the faces of the children who contribute to school and group entries as they see their creations come to life in this beautiful setting is something very special. While for the adults its a chance to let their inner child run riot!

For those working behind the scenes, for the volunteers creating and service refreshments, for all the wonderful singers and musicians who entertain us, its a chance to give something back to our fantastic community.

But alongside the community element there is also a very real fundraising role for the festival.  Since it began in 2003 the festival has raised some £120,000 which has been used to support the maintenance and development of Brightlingsea’s historic churches, St James’ in the High Street and All Saints’ on the outskirts of town, which hosts the Christmas Tree Festival.

The Festival has been run under the auspices of the Friends of All Saints’ since the start and they are currently coordinating plans for a major restoration of All Saints’ historic tower and the construction of a purpose built toilet and catering facility at the church.  You can find out more about the work of the Friends in the article below:

 

From 10am the shuttle bus will be running between All Saints’, the Park & Ride car park at Coop Fiveways on Samsons Rd and from outside St James’s Church in the High Street. First pick up will be from St James’ each morning At 10am. 

If you are coming into Brightlingsea look out for the Park & Ride signs which will direct you to the car park. The post code for your sat nav is CO7 0RN
The bus makes a circuit approximately every 30 minutes from 10am and will finish at around 5.45pm.

Parking is very limited at the Church so please do use the Park & Ride.