This weekend is tree dressing day and we’re asking you to share your stories and memories of trees and woods as well as send us your tree messages.
Content by the Woodland Trust #treecharter campaign.
Tree Dressing day falls on the first weekend of December. It was initiated by Common Ground in 1990 and has grown to become much more than an expression of love for trees.
It is a chance for the whole community to gather and celebrate the leafy friends we all have in common. It’s also a chance for communities to reflect on the social and cultural history of their local area, and the role trees have played in shaping history.
Trees have long been celebrated for their spiritual significant. The simplicity of tying strips of cloth or yarn to a tree is universal and timeless. The old Celtic custom of tying cloth dipped in water from a holy well to a ‘clootie tree’ echoes the practice in Japan of decorating trees with strips of white paper, or tanzaku, bearing wishes and poems.
The twenty-first century trend of ‘yarn bombing’ in Europe and North America transforms the local landscape with bright fabrics and yarns, like the Buddhist tradition of tying ribbons around the trunk of the Bodhi tree in homage to Buddah, or the annual Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan when coloured strings are tied onto trees and plants to call upon the power of nature to protect loved ones.
We risk losing trees form our lives and landscapes unless we express how important they are and how much we appreciate them. That’s why the Woodland Trust launches their campaign to create a Charter for Trees, Woods and People, which joins over 50 organisations, including City of Trees, and hundreds of local communities into a national movement for trees, speaking out for them and ensuring their value in society is recognised and protected for the future.
Get involved this tree dressing day
- - Come along to our Tree planting party on 3 December – plant a tree, take away a free one to plant to nurture in a pot at home, and leave a message of ‘thanks’ which we’ll hang on a tree for you
- Share your story – share your tree story or memory, which will be shared with the Charter
- Leave a message via our online form, and we’ll add it to a leaf, and hang it on a tree for you!