On Tuesday 21 November four Committee members visited Rufford Old Hall to decorate the SoFA Christmas Tree. We were allocated the tree in the entrance hall, where many visitors will be able to see it during the next few weekends.
This year’s theme is Victorian, Edwina had researched this and found out that many of the trees during that period would have been decorated with gingerbread men (and women) as well as gingerbread houses. Many of the ornaments would have been homemade. Luckily Edwina has several of these. Needless to say all of the decorations were made from non-perishable materials and no edible ones were used.
Candles would have been used to illuminate the trees, but of course using candles would be very dangerous, therefore we used three sets of battery operated lights. To finish off the display several gift boxes were set around the base of the tree.
Rufford Old Hall will be open on Fridays to Sundays from 11am to 4pm up to and including Sunday 17 December, should you wish to visit and see the array of various decorated Christmas Trees. The main hall has a wonderful display too.
Donation
During our visit to decorate the SoFA Christmas Tree we took the opportunity to present Rufford Old Hall with a donation cheque for £3,000. This is being used to purchase new picnic benches for the garden. At the same time David Roberts (Head Gardener) and a member of staff showed us the leaf blower they purchased with the donation we gave them last year.
It was explained to us that this was easy to use, being a re-chargeable version it is environmentally friendly and user friendly, in more ways than one. It does not emit air pollution, is a lot quieter and it much lighter to use than the petrol versions. They are thrilled that we were able to assist them with the purchase of this piece of equipment and to say ‘Thank You’ to all of the SoFA Membership for their generous donations.
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