BURBAGE Christmas tree sale is always a sign festivities are drawing closer and thousands descended on the village this weekend to take their pick of one of the hundreds of trees.

This year marks the 21st annual event and volunteers were kept busy helping families choose which tree to take home, while MP Claire Perry also gave a helping hand.

Pewsey Belles, the Bedwyn Millennium and Burbage Primary School choirs got visitors in the Christmas spirit by performing songs and there were also 50 stalls for people to browse.

“We are really pleased with how it went,” said Emma Butler, one of the organisers.

“Claire Perry came along and volunteered and donned her gloves and was selling trees, that was quite fun. We had more choirs than ever before, the atmosphere was fantastic.

“We were not counting the number of people who came in, but we estimate there was two and a half thousand and everybody seemed to be really happy.”

The Burbage Brownies were kept busy in the marquee selling wrapping paper they had printed themselves, before breaking out into songs from Jingle Bells to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

The Savernake Forest Scout Group also sold out of the log reindeers they were in charge of selling by the afternoon and local authors Debi Evans and Barbara Townsend were both at the event signing copies of their books.

Mrs Butler added: "We have had great feedback from people who visited and said it was a great experience, it was a lovely community event. It was the first year Soft Options sponsored the sale and it was particularly lovely because they are a Burbage family business.

“We are already thinking about next year. We had our first meeting last night to talk about what we are going to do next year, so watch this space because we will be back bigger in 2016.”