The email below was received from the Friends of St Conan's Church after the Festival. The photograph shows this year's entry.
"Hello,
What an amazing weekend! The Community has succeeded in producing the best Christmas Tree Festival yet! A journalist commented that there is really nothing else like our Festival and we have had good press coverage.There were 63 fabulous trees and an astonishing 4700 visitors. Feedback has been very positive!
A huge thank-you to everyone who took part by entering a tree, who helped decorate the Kirk, helped advertise, worked on the set-up, staffing and running of the Festival, who donated home baking and who donated raffle prizes. Thanks too for the beautiful "Forgotten Christmas Tree " installation, and also to the "Spotlight Boogies" for their lovely (and fun!) singing.
A comment on Facebook referred to “a wonderful weekend of community togetherness”.
With everyone's input and hard work we have raised over £9000 for Kirk improvements, community projects and our events programme.
Thank-you!
On behalf of the Friends and Trustees of St Conan’s, Best Wishes for a Very Happy Christmas.
Liz Mackay
Friends of St Conan’s Kirk, SCIO, SC045006"
The Rotary Club of Oban once again participated in The St Conans Kirk Christmas Tree Competition, the event last year being cancelled due to Covid.
The trees were available for inspection from 3/12/21 to 5/12/21 with visitors voting for the best display subject to a donation for Kirk funds. Oban Rotary's tree is far from a vote winner in terms of display but is unique in that in addition to the usual decorations the tree shows laminated photographs of the many community events the Club has been able to support from its charitable fund raising along with some of the club’s social activities.
Our photograph shows President Kees van Rein alongside new Community Convener Stuart Cluckie with PP Iain Mac Intyre taking the picture, having helped with the erection of the tree.
The Christmas Trees which all had an individual theme combined to produce a spectacular sight in the setting of St Conans Kirk.The three day viewing was well attended with coffee, tea and home baking on offer. Entry was by donation and there was also a raffle.
Under the auspices of Lynda Oxland, supported by husband PP Ken, Oban Rotary's tree this year, in addition to the traditional lights and baubles,
had the unique feature of 24 two sided cards with photographs of the various events/involvements the club has had in the past year.
The tree also had with it a placard summarising these events and emphasising Rotary's support for communities locally and abroad.
Following on from last year's effort, in 2017 the club once again participated in the St Conans Kirk Christmas Tree competition. This event is organised by "The Friends of St Conans Kirk" as a fund raiser where businesses/organisations put up individual Christmas trees inside the Kirk and the public are invited to view the spectacle over a weekend with tea/coffee and baking plus music being provided. Visitors are expected to leave a donation. Oban Rotary's tree, in addition to fairy lights and the usual baubles, also features two sided pictures depicting some of the club's involvements - a number of Rotary roundels also feature as part of the decoration. If nothing else, the tree provides some good PR for the club hence the reason for sticking with the same set up as last year and the intention is to continue with this theme.
2018
I know you have been waiting with bated breath (!) to see Rotary's entry for the above competition in 2018 and here it is in all its glory (right).
It really looks much better than this because the stand we got was very much on the dark side. The unique feature of our tree is that in addition to the usual decorations we have two sided laminated pictures of a number of the things we have done over the past 2/3 years.