This year’s Christmas Tree Festival was our best ever! We welcomed 63 trees from local groups, families, schools and organisations with trees of all shapes, sizes, ideas and colours. We also hosted our first ever “quiet Thursday” for adults or young people who need more space, time and lack of crowds… an option welcomed by a number of people.

The 3 days from Friday to Sunday were a whirlwind of activity as over 4000 visitors came to St Conan’s Kirk, and an army of volunteers met, greeted, guided, catered, raffle ticked, made teas, baked cakes, hid elves and otherwise kept things flowing smoothly.

The public vote gave the winning tree as the “Upside down tree”, however the Lego tree and Noah’s ark were very worthy runners up. Special mention to David Brown whose Forgotten Christmas Tree display leading down the stairs to the Crypt was magical.

This year the festival received significant media interest, from the Oban Times (Video below), to the Scotsman, Herald, BBC news and literally hundreds of local news outlets who shared the story and images.

Massive thanks to all who took part, and to our amazing organisor Liz Mackay works tirelessly to make the event happen.

An alternative video is at https://youtu.be/3STMoNOEWHw