CHRISTMAS traditions are still taking place this year, but coronavirus means that they are being adapted.
The annual ceremony that sees children from Wokingham’s schools present hand-made decorations for Wokingham town’s Christmas tree has gone virtual.
This year, 11 schools took part, and Wokingham town mayor, Cllr Tony Lack, said that he was delighted to receive the decorations. To express his thanks, he recorded a greeting for each school.
The Dressing the Christmas Tree ceremony is usually one part of the Wokingham Living Advent Calendar and held on the first Tuesday in December. However, this year, it will be part of tomorrow’s Virtual Living Advent Calendar.
There will be clips from the mayoral videos, as well as archive footage of the Wokingham Choral Society, who have traditionally led the carol singing at the event.
Organised by .moreArts and Wokingham Town Council, the groups hope that they will be able to resume the live ceremony next year.
Wokingham Town Mayor, Cllr Tony Lack, said: “The children’s decorations make the town’s tree look very special each year and it’s always lovely to see the wonderful creations from the schools. The tree sits at the heart of our community and brings us all joy during the festive season. I encourage you all to come and enjoy the tree and lights across the town. It’s beautiful and uplifting, especially during this time ”
The schools taking part are: Emmbrook Junior School, Walter Infant School, St Pauls C of E Junior School, The Holt School, Keep Hatch Primary School, Foundry College, Floreat Montague Park, Wescott Infant School, St Teresa’s Catholic Academy, Holme Grange School and Evendons Primary School.
New technology helps calendar
21st Century technology has been drafted in to make this year’s Wokingham Living Advent Calendar a success.
.moreArts has been working with Only Card to utilise NFC (near field communication) technology to help people interact with the online evenet.
Posters for the Living Advent Calendar have been placed around Wokingham Town Centre and they contain NFC tags. When a compatible mobile phone is placed next to it, it displays that day’s Advent calendar video.
Jim Stockley, Chair .moreArts, said: “As we see more of our lives moving online over the last few months, how we access and what routes we use to get that information have become increasingly important.
“We are pleased to incorporate the NFC technology into our posters this year. It gives us another way to get online.
“We believe we’re going to be using this more and more as we look towards things like virtual galleries, performances. Indeed we can incorporate these into pictures and point you to other works. Interesting possibilities.
“Look out for more from us next year.”
For more, log on to www.wokinghamadvent.org.uk or Facebook @wokinghamadvent
