Salisbury's biggest Christmas Tree Festival returns virtually
A few changes have been made for 2020 to keep everyone safe
Last updated 1st Dec 2020
St Thomas's Christmas Tree Festival begins today (Tuesday 1st December), but for the first time in 15 years the public can't visit the Salisbury church to see them.
Due to the pandemic, the festive decorations are going online this year but they still received over 50 entries.
A video has been made with a slideshow of lots of differently designed trees, as well as a specific page telling you who made each one.
Audio recordings have also been made by the musicians who would usually have played live during the festival.
Last year, over 15,000 visitors raised money for some local causes, with more set to benefit this year from online donations.
The event is supporting The Jo Benson Day Centre for Disabled Adults and The Salisbury Child Contact Centre.
A spokesperson for the church said:
"This year, though our specially created website, visitors will be able to see not only wonderful decorated trees and Christmas scenes, but also be able to hear festive music. The Church has asked local choirs, music ensembles and individual musicians to perform and record seasonal music that visitors can select and play back through the Festival site.
After enjoying the visual and aural ‘virtual feast’ visitors will be encouraged to help contribute to our worthy causes. Donating will be easy thorough a specially constructed, secure payment facility."
You can take a virtual tour of all the Christmas creations by going to tomtreefest.org.uk.
It runs until the 15th December.