The first Worthing Christmas Tree Festival Trail is a hit

The Worthing Town Centre Partnership knew they needed to adapt their Christmas plans this year in order to spread a bit of joy even during these testing times. They decided to enlist the help of Plantscape and their real Christmas tree planters in order to bring a bit of festive joy to their streets.

Inspired by their summer seafront planting competition, which sees local businesses creating displays in their assigned planting area, they decided to use 14 of Plantscape’s real Christmas tree planters and allow local businesses and community groups to join in and bring the town together.

Each participant was given free rein in how their tree would be decorated and each tree definitely had its own unique story! The local theatre group incorporated several hidden shows in their tree to create a competition of their own, the local wine bar used their corks to make bespoke festive figures and other businesses used the trees in order to showcase what their business could do!

The trees were then entered into a competition on the Worthing Town Centre Initiative Facebook page, which had over 10,000 likes and was seen by over 43,000 people, as the public were encouraged to vote for their favourite tree.

The Worthing Town Centre Initiative winner, announced just before Christmas was Christmas Tree 3 – Made with my own Lilywhite Hands group who won the local town council and BID’s prize

Town Centre Manager, Sharon Clarke said “We wanted to do something everyone can enjoy and make people smile after all this year has brought. We wanted to bring people into the town centre to help boost the footfall for local businesses but obviously had to come up with a concept that allowed for social distancing. The trees are festive, fun and make the passers-by feel good. The competition means that people can visit throughout the day and even on the night and enjoy the displays in a safe way.

Plantscape were so impressed with the town’s initiative that they decided to award a prize to the tree they liked the most. The Playful Penguins Christmas tree was decorated by local children to help get them in the festive spirit after a very strange year for everyone. The have been awarded a certificate and £100 of vouchers by Plantscape to celebrate their hard work.

Plantscape’s Director, Richard Webster said: “What a great way to bring some cheer back into the local area, especially after such a challenging end to the year. We struggled to select a winner as all of the trees looked fantastic and had their own unique story. Well done to the Playful Penguins Christmas tree that was chosen as our winner – we hope you had a great time decorating your tree!

Plantscape would like to congratulate all of the winners that took part in the competition and thank them for working to boost community spirit for the local area.

If you would like to order some of our Real Christmas Tree Planters to run your own festive competition next year, contact the team here.