After starting the Christmas Tree Festival in 2005, Stroud Parish Church has seen the number of entries into their event skyrocket from 30 trees in the first year to a massive 143 Christmas trees in some of their most successful years.

Local businesses, community groups, and individuals from Stroud and the surrounding area are invited to enter a tree for free, which will be displayed at the church from the 2nd to the 9th December.

Mike and Toni Lambert are both Stroud locals and regular attendees of the church, which this year is celebrating 150 years since it was built.

Together, Mike and Toni with a small team of helpers, organise the festival on behalf of the church, and Mike is hoping this year will be as successful as previous years.

He said: “This is the 14th year in a row we’ve held the Christmas Tree Festival and we’re going to have well over 100 trees again this year.

“Organisations and individuals from across Stroud bring in trees which they can decorate however they want, for us to then display at the church.

“I think we’ll probably have around the same number of trees as last year, about 130. We’d love to beat our record, but we’d probably run out of space!”

Alongside the spectacle of all the trees lit up inside the church, there will be a number of shows and performances throughout the week to entertain visitors.

Mike continued: “We have a switch on ceremony on Sunday 2nd December with Kate Clark from BBC Radio Gloucestershire which is going to be great.

“We’ve got entertainment throughout the week, Baily’s Beads will be playing at the Switch On event, and there’s lunchtime concerts from local choirs and musicians.

“Also for the first time we have the Cotswold Players performing on selected nights. They’ll be staging ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, which is going to be great fun.”

He added: “The Switch on event and the evening performances of It’s a Wonderful Life do have an entrance fee but all other events are free of charge. All profits go to the Stroud Parish Church to fund repairs and refurbishments required to continue to make this into a real community building.”