By Mal Butler
This year’s Brighstone Christmas Tree Festival starts with a Lights of Love service on Wednesday (Dec 6) at 7pm, in St Mary’s Church in the village, and continues throughout next weekend. Trees in some venues will be on display until the new year.
The event is in its 27th year and attracts people from across the country. It is now being organised by Diane Woodhouse and Emily Waters after its founder, Chris Goodman, stepped down two years ago. Last year, the duo organised a scaled-down version at the IW Pearl Centre, but his year there will be a full festival for the first time since lockdown.
More than 150 trees, raising money for a variety of charities, will be on show all over the village including: St Mary’s Church; the Methodist Church; Wilberforce Hall; the Social Club; Library (children’s trees); Mottistone Church; The Three Bishops Pub and Isle of Wight Pearl. The new venues are All Saints’ Church, Calbourne, and Calbourne Water Mill.
The IW Observer will also be involved with the festival with our charity tree based at the IW Pearl Centre raising money for Age Concern IW.
There will be special events across the weekend including a Nativity pageant next Saturday (December 9) with performances at 1.30pm and 3pm at Brighstone and Shorwell Methodist Church Garden, Brighstone.
Each day, there will be a quiet hour at St Mary’s Church from 9am-10am.
Another new feature will be a tractor run to reflect the area’s agricultural heritage. Vectis Vintage Tractors will be travelling from IW Pearl at 3.30pm on Saturday (December 9) and visiting all the venues. The tractors will all be decorated with Christmas lights and tinsel.
Lots of fun will take place including Christmas quizzes and raffles, special visits from Father Christmas, live musical performances and craft markets, entertaining local acts, face painting, and special home-made refreshments.
There will be a park-and-ride service offered by the FYT Bus and while entry into each venue is free, donations to the charities will be welcome.
For more information, visit the event’s Facebook page or visit iow.life/treefestival.
Isle of Wight Observer