What's on: Decorated trees on display at Whangārei church

Diane Pennington - one of the organisers of the St John Golden Church Festival of Christmas Trees. Photo / Michael Cunningham

One Christmas tree is decorated with tartan bows, another with cards and one has decorations which have come from England.

There are more than 40 of them and they are all on display at St John's Golden Church Festival of Christmas Trees.

DianePennington, one of the organisers, said the event is about celebrating the "true meaning of Christmas".

"It's not a commercial thing, it's a joyous family-centred celebration. We have more than 40 Christmas trees on display and each one has been decorated by a local community group. It's absolutely wonderful, the trees are wonderful and each one is unique and different."

Some of community groups that decorated trees include Whangārei Heads Pioneer Church, The Fijian Community, Mairtown Kindy, Northland Down Syndrome Trust, Sands and more.

She said most groups decorated their trees to the theme of the organisations.

The pipe band have decorated theirs with tartan bows, while the community group run at the St John's Golden Church decorated their tree with cards as they often play a game or two when they are together.

"Every year we have more and more people putting their name on the list for being interested in decorating, so it's always fresh.

"There was a woman who was here last year visiting who has gone back to England and her church in England have sent over the decorations and a message and we have a tree on their behalf," she said.

Pennington said most people who wander in to look at the trees "love it".

"We've had one woman come in before we'd even opened and said 'I always come every year, these are my Christmas trees, I always bring my children,'

"We have visitors who come from out of town particularly at this time of year so they can come and see the festival. We've had some very moving stories," she said.

The Festival of Christmas Trees, at St John's Golden Church on Kamo Rd, opened on Monday and will continue until Christmas Eve. It is open 10am to 1pm and 6.30pm to 9.30pm.

There will also be a Children's Service at the church on Sunday at 7pm, a Christmas Eve Nativity Trail at 7pm on Christmas Eve, and a family service at 9.30am on Christmas Day.