Winners

Each year the visitors to the Festival vote for their favourite trees, the children take part in special competitions and there are raffles for various goodies. Each visitor to the festival is given a voting form on arrival and selects their favourite tree and at the end of the festival our amazing volunteers then collate and count all the votes.

The Winners of the 2024 Brightlingsea Christmas Tree Festival are:

First Place Adult Tree – Essex Handicrafts- Evidence of Elves.

Second Place Adult Tree – Springmead Garden – Springmead Fairies.

First Place Child Group – 4Youth Brightlingsea – We Fish You A Merry Christmas.

Second Place Child Group – Brightlingsea Primary School – Trash to Treasure.

First Place Child Individual – Daisie Crochet Chain – Daisie Willett.

The Winners of the 2023 Brightlingsea Christmas Tree Festival are:

Adult

1st – Joseph’s Carpen-Tree – Adrian Ryder

2nd – The Twelve Knits of Christmas – The Holy Mowers

Child

1st – Dale Chihuly Sculpture Tree – The Colne Community School

2nd – Charlie and the Chocolate Factree – Ladybirds Pre-School Thorrington

Special Mention – Hanging With My Gnomies – Amy Carter

The Winners of the 2022 Brightlingsea Christmas Tree Festival were:

Adult

1st – The Twelve Days of Christmas – Essex Handicraft Association

2nd – Hard Times (Glad Tidings) – Mr Windows

Child

1st – Beach Christmas – Brightlingsea Beach School & Thames Estuary Lobster Hatchery

2nd – Pom Tiddly Pom Pom Christmas – Church Lads and Church Girls Brigade

In 2021 the festival was held at All Saints’ Church but due to the Covid restrictions it wasn’t possible to manage voting slips safely and so no winners were declared.

The winners of the 2020 competition were:

The Covid-19 pandemic meant things had to be a little different in 2020 though and the festival went online for the first time ever. Entrants created and then photographed their trees to display in the Brightlingsea Virtual Christmas Tree Festival and viewers could vote for their favourites.
Adult Individual – Andy Conroy (aka Mr Windows) “haP.P.E Christmas”
Adult Group – Brightlingsea Food Bank “Elves on the Shelves”
Adult Group – Runner Up – Special Commendation – Brightlingsea Museum “Shipwrights Tree”
Individual Young Person – Florence Andrews – Elves of Advent Tree
Youth Group – 4 YOUth “4YOUth Christmas Treats

The winners of the 2019 competition were:

GROUP – Brightlingsea Beach School “Drift-ing home for Christmas”
Runner-up Child group  –  2nd Brightlingsea Rainbows “Elves on Shelves”
CHILD INDIVIDUAL – Florence Andrews “O Pasta tree, O Pasta tree”
ADULT GROUP – Brightlingsea U3A “Electronic Circuit tree
ADULT INDIVIDUAL – Mr Windows “I saw three ships
The winners of the Nativity Figure Hunt at the Christmas tree festival were: Finley Grant ( aged 10) Daisy Kemp ( aged 7) They each win a prize of a book.

The winners of the 2018 competitions were:

CHILD INDIVIDUAL – Florence Andrews “The Hama-tree”
CHILD GROUP – Wong/Totenhofer family “Chemis-tree”
ADULT INDIVIDUAL – Payne Gunfield “A Spanner in the Works”
ADULT GROUP – Oaklands Care Home “The NHS Angel”
RUNNERS UP – Highly Commended – Adult Group – French Marine “Sleigh Drive”
Child Group – 4th B’Sea Scouts “Tree Prepared”

The winners of the 2017 competitions were:

Favourite Christmas Tree, was won by

Adult Group – Brightlingsea Litter Pickers with ‘The Litter Tree’

Adult Individual – Zoe Aldridge with ‘The Tree of Life’

Children’s Group – Brightlingsea Junior school with ‘On the Twelfth Day of Christmas’

Child Individual – The Ryder family with ‘Joseph’s Carpen’tree’

The Rock Hunt was won by

  • Max Parkinson aged 11 yrs.
  • Isabelle Day aged 6 yrs.

The Raffles were won by

  • Hamper – The French Family
  • Village Snow Scene – A Etheridge

The winners of the 2016 competitions were:

TREE WINNERS

Child individual Isabelle’s Christmas Tree Isabelle Day

Child group Owl I want for Christmas Brightlingsea Junior School

Child/Runners-up (Highly Commended) It all begins with ABC Childminding Group and A Fishmas Tree Brightlingsea Infant School Kids Club & Nursery

Adult individual Angel Delight Zoe Aldridge

Adult group A Christmas Tree-t WoolyBuly Craft Group

Adult/Runners-up (Highly Commended) Notes on a Tree Sing Brightlingsea and Helping Hands at the Heart of the Community First Responders

CHILDREN’S QUIZ WINNERS

Quiz 8/11: Gracie Hempstead-Smith, age 11; Megan Plummer, age 9

Quiz 5/7: Cody Buck , age 7; Sullivan French, age 5

Guess the Lamb’s Name : Marie Murphy, age 5 – Lamb’s name “ Angel”

HAMPER WINNER
Vivien Chapman

DEER WINNER
Bev Aldridge

CHRISTMAS CAKE WINNER
Bob and Rose Gudger

The winners of the 2015 tree competition were:

Children’s Section

Child Group – Forestree, Colne Community School
Child Individual – The Night before Christmas, Hamilton Family
Highly Commended – Christmas Tree Under the Sea, Brightlingsea Infant School
Highly Commended – Individualitree, Brightlingsea Junior School

Adult Section

Adult Group – The Night Before Christmas, WoolyBuly’s Craft Group
Adult Individual – Have a Merry Berry Christmas, Bridge Ladies
Highly Commended – We Three Kings, Brightlingsea Beach Hut Association

In addition there are competitions run for the children in the church during the festival. The winners of the 2015 competitions for children were:

Children’s Competitions

Gold Bar Competition – Samuel Smith and Sophie Thorne
Rhymes and Riddles – Oscar Finbow and Amber

Well done to everyone who took part and congratulations to Samuel, Sophie, Oscar and Amber