How can a simple Christmas decoration make a grown woman sleepless?  When it’s a Christmas decoration from the Cambridge Christmas Festival Trust.

The Cambridge Christmas Festival Trust runs a weekly craft group in Cambridge, where around 30 mainly elderly folk make a range of crafts, including Christmas decorations.  The decorations and other crafts are then sold to raise funds for charity.

It’s a simple idea, but one which has marked the start of an annual event in Cambridge and which has since spread around the country.

The Cambridge Christmas Festival Trust was the Supreme Winner at the 2003 TrustPower Waipa District Community Awards and went on to receive the Runner-Up title at the TrustPower National Community Awards. 

The recognition the Trust received through the TrustPower Community Awards was certainly well deserved.  Throughout the year the group’s volunteers make Christmas decorations and other crafts, such as smock dresses, embroidery, painting and placemats.  They then cleverly assemble Christmas decorations and displays in the Cambridge Town Hall for three weeks during December, where the public can come and see the Christmas wonderland they create and buy the beautifully handmade goods.

Each year thousands of people crowd into the Town Hall to see the display.  Busloads of tourists arrive from as far away as Whangarei and Palmerston North to see this renowned annual showcase.

Cambridge Christmas Festival Trust Trustee Gail Troughton says the money they raise throughout the three week festival goes to charity.

“Last year we gave $20,000 to groups such as the Cambridge Stroke Club, True Colours counselling service in Hamilton and the Hospice.  We also gave money to help train a Hearing Dog, which will enable a hearing impaired person to come out of seclusion and get on with their life,” says Gail.

Included in the 30 strong craft group are two ladies who are over 90 years of age.

“As well as raising funds for the community our group also benefits the volunteers who take part.  Being part of the Cambridge Christmas Festival Trust offers companionship, a sense of purpose and friendship.  All our volunteers would not miss their weekly get together for the world,” says Gail.

The Cambridge Christmas Festival Trust aims to put the Christ back into Christmas.  Gail says while they have a few Santas at the Festival they are careful not to commercialise the event.  They are currently fundraising to have a calf stuffed for their life-sized nativity scene – a scene the Trust feels is important in order to teach future generations about the real meaning of Christmas.

Being named Runner Up at the TrustPower National Community Awards was a huge boost for the Trust and its volunteers.

“It was great to be acknowledged…our volunteers were just thrilled to bits,” says Gail.

At the TrustPower National Community Awards the Cambridge Christmas Festival Trust gave each of the participants a star to take home.  One of those stars was taken back to Dunedin by representatives from Age Concern Otago, who were representing Dunedin at the National Awards, and found its way into the hands of Pam Grellet.

“I was given this star and then I couldn’t sleep for three nights, just thinking about how I could do what this Cambridge group was doing, as well as doing my existing job!” says Pam, who runs Age Concern’s Octagon Club.

Pam eventually found a way, and for the last two years members of Dunedin’s Octagon Club have been making Christmas decorations.

“In 2004 we made stars and we intended to give them to those in residential care.  But then people wanted to buy them, so we sold all our stars and had to make 130 more to give away.”

The next year the volunteers at the Octagon Club made angels out of artificial flowers.  Pam says it was a lot of work, but it was worthwhile.

“People really loved receiving the gifts and their faces just lit up.  It was a wonderful idea and it all started thanks to meeting the wonderful volunteers from the Cambridge Christmas Festival Trust at the TrustPower National Community Awards,” says Pam.

This year, volunteers in both Cambridge and Dunedin will continue to make the Christmas decorations and their work will continue to benefit the volunteers themselves as well as the wider community.

In Cambridge this year’s theme for the Christmas Festival is ‘The Night Before Christmas’, while in Dunedin Pam says she thinks they’ll make stars again!