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Tuesday 1 December 2015

Christmas Tree Festival


This is the Church of St. Helen in Etwall village, where the Christmas Tree Festival is held.  The building dates from the 12th Century and is alongside National Cycle Network Route 54 which dates from 2002.


The Ranger Group have been invited to participate in the Christmas Tree Festival to be held from Saturday 5th  to Wednesday 9th December at St. Helen's Church in Etwall.  The church is open for viewing from 10.30am to 7pm on each day and the entry fee of £1 per person goes to several local charities.
There are many organisations in the village and most will have a theme for their tree/display , and as you might expect ours is themed around cycling and the National Cycle Network with a small bicycle (donated by Alan Locke) and a Santa Claus (made by Mavis Ratcliffe) in a winter landscape of snow capped mountains and fir trees under a star lit sky, with a clockwork sheep skating on a frozen pond.
The lighting is all by battery powered LEDs and we will be interested to see how long the batteries last.
This is not just a static display, as we have rotating lights on the bike and Shaun the Skating Sheep displays his skills on the tiny ice rink. These features best seen on video.
We expect the longevity of the lights to exceed that of Shaun's clockwork motor.


To see a better quality video on YouTube CLICK HERE

December 6th
Good attendance at St.Helen's Church for the Festival on Saturday and Sunday.
There are 56 decorated trees on show.
As expected Shaun the Skating Sheep has proved popular with young children and some older people, one of whom said "Why should kids have all the fun?"
Good point.






We will be bringing the display along to the Christmas Lunch on Dec 10th for the benefit of those who are not able to visit the church.

The Grantham Rangers have a decorated tree now in St. Wulfram's Church in Grantham, where there is also a Christmas Tree Festival. Their tree is made of bicycle wheels, chain wheels and sprockets. A fine effort.
See it HERE


4 comments:

David Martin said...

Hi Les, what have we started!!! Nice little display there.
Thanks for comments over our tree, hoping for a repeat next year with a much bigger, better display.

Littleranger said...

Well done Les with such an excellent design. Very well done to David Martin also with the Grantham tree. Both looking great.

Littleranger said...

Great display in the St. Helens Church from 10.30 to 7.00 pm every day until Wednesday although the church will be closed for a funeral late Tuesday morning for 1 hour ? 11.00 to 12.00 noon. The entrance of £1 includes tea/coffee. There are also carols around the trees Wednesday afternoon 2.30 - 3.30 pm approx.
Sustran's 'tree' is amazing!

Littleranger said...

Amendment to the above that I discovered the entrance fee is £1 and another £1 for tea and a biscuit. Still very good value as all the money goes to local charities. Add a piece of cake for another 50p!