If you’re a real stickler for Christmas traditions, 5th January would have seen your baubles go back in the loft, and your Christmas tree leave the party. Any earlier or later and an old wives’ tale has it that you could be in for a dose of bad luck.

The festive season may have officially ended, but it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. Here at Saint Francis Hospice, we have plenty of reasons to be cheerful as we gear up for the warmer spring months. One of those is the enormous success of our Christmas tree recycling campaign.

After the Twelfth Night, 30 Hospice volunteers kindly gave up their time, braved the cold, and did something incredible for the environment and those less fortunate. January blues were crushed, and over 1,000 trees were chipped.  

We saved thousands of people across Havering the hassle of chopping up their sorry-looking trees that would usually end up languishing in landfills, emitting harmful gases as they take hundreds of years to rot. Instead, the trees we collected will be turned into biofuel, which is much more eco-friendly. 

Thank you to everyone who donated and volunteered, including Kempster & Sons, King Cuts Tree Services, and Prince Tree Services. You helped raise over a whopping £12,000 for our Hospice and people affected by life-limiting illnesses in your local boroughs.

‘It was a huge success. Without our volunteers, it wouldn’t have been possible,’ says Charlotte Winder, Community Fundraiser. 

Christmas Tree Recycling will return in November, bigger and better than ever before.

Joe Emery is a mental health advocate and a writer by trade. You can learn more about him from his website.