St Laurence Church in Stroud is this week filled with wonderfully festive Christmas trees, all designed and decorated by local groups.
Camilla Hale, the festival co-ordinator, told Stroud Times: “It is such a joy, and such a wonderful mixture of community and imagination and creativity. It’s such a lovely thing to be involved in.
“Community groups, churches, WIs and charities all design what they’re going to do and then work hard to get them all here and then they bring them and dress their trees – and we’ve got 117 trees this year.
“We try and keep the spaces as open as possible because a lot of wheelchair users come in and have a look.”
The festival runs every day until Saturday, December 9th at 4.30pm: “On Sunday at 11am we’ve got a big town carol service in the church, and then people start taking the trees away,” added Ms Hale.
There is a collection of non-perishable goods for the various food hubs around Stroud and new packets of underwear for men and women will be collected for the Gloucester City Mission.
For more details visit: FULL FESTIVAL PROGRAMME (stlaurencefuture.org.uk)
Pictures and video by Matt Bigwood
