Watch: How Covent Garden gets its Christmas tree

While it's common knowledge that the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree comes every year as a generous gift from Norway - did you know the Covent Garden tree comes from a forest a little closer to home?

For the past 15 years, Covent Garden's Christmas tree has come from Woods Farm, Shirley which also supplies festive trees to Downing Street and Windsor Castle.

Ahead of the Christmas lights being switched on tonight, we followed the tree on its journey from Solihull in the West Midlands to the West End of London.

The tree has been decorated with 30,000 lights and 200 gold baubles and will stand tall in the Covent Garden piazza until early January 2025, after which it will be composted and used to help the next generation of trees grow.

Story by Michael McKenzie

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12 November 2024