Christmas Tree Festival 2025

St Mary’s Annual Christmas Tree Festival

Yes, its that time of year again, and people at St Mary’s, Melton Mowbray, are getting ready to welcome over 200 trees and thousands of visitors into the church. Lots of work is going on ‘behind the scenes’ to plan the layout so that visitors can see all the displays in all their glory.

The Festival opens on Thursday 27 November at 7pm with the special Preview Evening with Cheese and Wine. Tickets, £10, for this event will be on sale from the Parish Office in Burton Street every morning from 10-12 noon. The main event will then be open to the public from 9.30 on Friday 28 until 9pm in the evening to coincide with the switch-on of the town lights and the Victorian Fair. Normal adult entry is £3.

The festival will continue throughout the weekend with refreshments available every day, but please note:

Saturday 9.30 – 3.30 followed by a Family Carol Service among the trees at 5pm when the choir will sing and some of the Primary Schools Christmas Card designs will be displayed.

Sunday we will be open from 9.30 – 4pm. At 6pm there will be an Advent Carol Service (Christmas Tree lights will not be switched on for this) followed by cake and wine.

On Monday 1 December we’ll be open from 9.30 – 8pm with mulled wine and mince pies available from 5pm.

And on Tuesday you will have to be quick because this splendid event will sadly close its doors at 2pm.

Christmas Tree Festival 2024

What an amazing Christmas Tree Festival we’ve had this year in St Mary’s Church, Melton Mowbray. Our beautiful Church building has been full of lights and music, adults and children, all enjoying the spectacular display of Christmas Trees.

There were more than 230 floor trees this year, and 15 window trees, a mixture of entries from schools, charities, clubs, organisations and businesses.

And we couldn’t have done any of this without our fabulous Christmas Tree Festival Committee and our amazing team of hard-working volunteers.

To our wonderful army of movers and shifters who helped set out the church ready for the trees coming in, to those volunteers who worked so hard during the festival making endless cups of tea and coffee, serving scones and cakes and meeting and greeting on the door. We take our hats off to you all. Thank you so much for going the extra mile to make this year’s event so spectacular… and for doing it with a big smile on your faces.

To those who entered trees, we applaud you. Your imaginations ran wild on themes for your trees… and we are sure you are now thinking about what you can do to better them next year!

The Christmas Tree Festival Committee would like to thank this year’s sponsors for their generosity and support. They are: Bloor Homes East Midlands; Samworth Brothers; Shouler & Son; NFU Mutual Melton Mowbray and INSTEP of Melton.

Special thanks must also go to Melton BID; W. Southerington & Sons Ltd; C&C Plants Scalford; Central England Co-operative Funeralcare and Gates Garden Centre for all your help and support.

The event brought together the whole community and was enjoyed by many, from both near and far.

The votes are in…
After a nail-biting count the winner of our Festival Favourite was Sugar Shamrock’s Grinch.
It was a closely run competition, with more than 1700 votes cast… and only four votes separating the winner and second place, Fleur’s Floristry with their bridal dress themed tree.

The winning entry was made of cake by the owners of Sugar Shamrocks, sisters Naomi and Dionne Yeandle, and took a

couple of days to make.
They brought it in to the Christmas Tree Festival in three pieces and most of it is edible. If you missed seeing the Grinch you can now find him in the window at Sugar Shamrocks, which is based in Sherrard Street.

Our pictures show Naomi and Dionne Yeandle, the Grinch and Fleur’s Floristry’s wedding dress themed tree.