St John’s Anglican Church will launch the annual Festival of Christmas Trees. Photo: Supplied.
With Christmas now just three weeks away, St John’s Anglican Church in Wagga is gearing up for the annual Festival of Christmas Trees.
The church will throw open its doors from Saturday, 21 December, until 24 December to share a display of 12 beautiful Christmas trees, sponsored and decorated by various parish and community organisations.
St John’s rector, Reverend Mike Perrott, said there would be a range of live entertainment, and people could drop in to see the trees and sit and listen.
“The church will be open for the public to wander inside a building that they may not go into except for weddings and funerals,” he said.
“This is an opportunity for us to share the joy of the message of the Christ-Mass with our community.”
Entry is free, but gold coin donations are appreciated, with all proceeds from the festival to go to the Anglicare Emergency Relief fund.
Anglicare senior manager of child, youth and family services, Jasmine Woodland, said the organisation had been experiencing an increasing call for its services.
“This year has been particularly hard for a lot of people,” she said.
“We are receiving more and more requests from a wide variety of the Wagga community. It is no longer just the low socio-economic group that are having difficulties making ends meet.”
This ”Christmas Tree at Windsor Castle” image is credited with popularising Christmas trees beyond Germany in 1848. Photo: British Library.
The Christmas tree has its roots in ancient European traditions and was adopted as part of Christian celebrations in Germany in the 16th century.
The modern Christmas tree trend is attributed to Queen Victoria and her German husband, Albert, who were depicted in the Illustrated London News in 1846 decorating a tree with their royal children.
The decorated trees quickly caught on and are now one of the core traditions of the holiday.
This year’s festival will officially open on Saturday, 21 December, at 3:15 pm with an official welcome, the Blessing of the Trees and Remembrance Service, where people can write the name of a loved one on a decoration and place it on the Remembrance Tree.
“It’s a lovely way of remembering special people who are no longer with us,” Reverend Perrott said.
“Christmas can be a hard time for some people.”
The festival proper kicks off at 6 pm with the Murrumbidgee Magic and Wagga City Rugby Male choirs performing all your Christmas favourites, and musicians from the Riverina Conservatorium of Music will feature throughout Sunday evening.
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