Plymouth primary schoolchildren have taken top honours after their decorated Christmas tree was judged to be the best at a Festival of Trees, raising more than £12,000 for the NSPCC.
The 27th annual display of Christmas trees is hosted by Theatre Royal Plymouth in the heart of the city with dozens of brightly decorated trees on display around the theatre foyer. Each year local businesses, organisations and clubs come together to decorate the trees and help raise money for children’s charity the NSPCC. In total 29 trees and more than 30 garlands have been created for the festival of trees.
Alison Armer, NSPCC community fundraising manager said:
“We would like to thank everyone who has taken part in this year’s Festival of Trees in Plymouth. Special thanks to our dedicated volunteers for giving so much of their time organising the festival and to Theatre Royal Plymouth for hosting the event for the 27th year.
“All of the trees and garlands look fantastic and we are so grateful for all the sponsors and decorators for their time, creativity and skill to make them look so wonderful. We are delighted to have raised such a significant amount of money which will help support NSPCC services and keep children safe.”
This year, first prize went to St Andrew’s C of E Primary School after children joined together with Plymouth based Princess Yachts to decorate a tree. The children incorporated the NSPCC’s Pantosaurus mascot in their ‘Santa’s Pants’ design to create an explosion of colour on their tree.
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Mel Wensley, assistant company secretary at Princess Yachts, said:
“It is really wonderful to have won the NSPCC Festival of Trees competition this year, but the real credit goes to the Year One children from St Andrew’s C of E Primary School, who designed and made the decorations.
“We have supported this wonderful NSPCC initiative for several years now, but last year, decided to involve local primary schools to help us theme and design the decorations. It was so well supported that we decided to do it again this year and once again the response from the schools was incredible.
“The ‘Santa’s Pants’ theme designed by the pupils in Year One at St Andrew’s seemed especially fitting as the inspiration came from another really powerful NSPCC campaign idea; Talk PANTS and the Pantosaurus. The cheekiness of the ‘Santa’s Pants’ proposal brought a real smile to the office.
“We owe a huge thank you to the children of St Andrew’s and we hope that they enjoy the tickets we donated for them to see Goldilocks & The Three Bears at the Theatre Royal – it is certainly very well deserved.”
Second prize in the competition went to first-time sponsor Larry Speare; while Dance Fusion were highly commended for their efforts.
Ross Ayling, head of visitor experience at Theatre Royal said:
“We’re delighted to once again host the NSPCC’s Festival of Trees which we have been doing for 27 years. The calibre of entries gets better each year and the trees certainly add to the festive atmosphere here at the theatre.”
The Festival of Trees will remain open for view during the festive season for visitors to Theatre Royal Plymouth.
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