Bush Christmas Tree

We have one very special event in our little town every year, our community Christmas Tree. It was the 86th year in a row, this year. Myself and my mate Lea take delight in keeping this tradition going and every year we try to make each tree that little bit better. We start planing, then we hit the shops in Perth for two days, helping Santa buy the gifts. We have a set budget to work with and we like to get bang for our buck. The bigger the better!

We are Santa’s little helpers. 🙂

The district comes together in the morning to set up the decorations. And usually its also a catch up with people we haven’t seen in a while.

A few years back we also started a colouring competition. A Christams picture gets sent out with their specail invite from Santa. We divided the kids up into three sections and stick their pictures on the wall with a special coloured code so kids and adults could vote for their favourite. Kids love seeing their work on display. (My son sat down and coloured his picture in until it was done. I’ve never seen him concentrate for so long. His teacher would have been impressed!)

We were lucky this year to recieve money from the drought fund, so we put on free food and drinks for the kids and free bbq meat for the adults.

Here they wait eagerly for Santa to arrive at 6.45pm.

When the kids heard the siren, they knew he was coming. They were so excited.

Santa gets out and throws/hands out lollies to the kids. Then they rush inside to sit by the tree.

Settling Santa in on his special chair. We made that a few years back and found out that mice like eating velvet!!! Little buggers. Lucky they ate in spots that were coverable.

Then we help Santa to give out all the presents to all the kids. We only had 47 kids this year, we are shrinking in size but for a 5 house town thats pretty amazing.

Huge thanks go to all the parents who helped set up and then clean up. Also to Yogi, Lea’s other half, for all his work with the meat and bbqs. So much of what’s done in a small community is volunteers and without them there would be no events like this. Farmers putting harvest on hold for an hour so they could help set up lights etc, is very special and we appreciate it!

So I’ll end this blog with a huge Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you and your family enjoy every moment and wishing you a fabulous New Year! Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas x