The Bradley Stoke Journal

If you haven’t bought your Christmas tree yet (or just fancy an extra one to fill that empty space in your Bradley Stoke mansion), there are plenty going free at the town’s Willow Brook Centre.

Hundreds of unsold “real” trees, mostly around 8ft tall,  have been abandoned by a seller in the car park of the centre and a source at the Willow Brook Management office has confirmed to The Journal that anyone can go along and help themselves.

The Christmas tree compound in the corner of the car park was erected about two weeks ago, but business was slow – presumably because most people had already bought their trees elsewhere earlier in the month.

The compound fencing was removed earlier today, leaving free access to the trees, which were retailing “from £18″ earlier in the week.

The trees are due to be removed by the seller “after Christmas”, according to the Willow Brook source.

Happy Christmas to all our readers from The Journal team!

We hope to update the website as normal over the holiday period, so don’t forget to check back soon for all the latest Bradley Stoke news, including our Review of 2009.

Our Bradley Stoke Christmas 2009 page has all the information you need to enjoy the Christmas and New Year break, including:

• Opening times of Tesco Extra, Tesco Express, Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre and Bradley Stoke Library
• Opening times of shops and ice skating at The Mall, Cribbs Causeway
• South Gloucestershire Council rubbish and recycling collection schedule

Other useful links for the festive break:

• Bradley Stoke What’s On Guide
• Bradley Stoke Faith and Religion

The Christmas season is well underway in Bradley Stoke and a number of festive events are set to take place in the coming days.

Bradley Stoke Community School stages its annual European Christmas Market this evening  (Thursday) between 5pm and 7:30pm.

The market will feature “gifts, toys, bratwurst, mulled wine, mince pies, gingerbread, raffle, carol singers and much, much more”, according to the school’s website.

Saturday and Sunday (5th/6th December) will see Santa doing his annual Sleigh Run around the streets of Bradley Stoke along with members of Great Western Round Table.

The group says that Santa is hoping to meet lots of children so that he can give out sweets and collect Christmas letters.

Mike Santiago-Griggs, Sleigh Chairman of Great Western Round Table said:

“We are really looking forward to it as it is such a tradition. We also have a brand new sleigh this year.”

For lots more Bradley Stoke Christmas events, visit our What’s On guide.

Heart FM’s breakfast team of Bush, Troy and Paulina are to broadcast live from the Willow Brook Centre this Thursday (26th November) as part of the shopping centre’s Christmas lights switch on event.

Family entertainment from 3pm in the Town Square will include Santa’s reindeer, children’s rides and a stilt walker.

The centre is promising that “snow will be falling in the square to give that traditional Christmas feeling”. [Ed: If you want to know what the Town Square looks like covered in snow, see our Bradley Stoke Snow photos from February].

There will also be a very special guest appearance from popular children’s TV character Peppa Pig, who will be meeting shoppers at regular intervals and turning the lights on at 5pm.

The Heart Angels will be there too, with free face painting for the kids and the chance for you to give them your Christmas message, which may be read out on air.

The radio station is also staging a competition that will see a lucky Willow Brook Centre visitor win £250 cash to help with the Christmas shopping [terms & conditions apply].

Link Romania Christmas Shoebox Appeal Update

Local shoppers, businesses and students donated a grand total of 475 Christmas shoeboxes in the Kumon Educational / Link Romania charity appeal that has been running over the last few months.

The boxes were collected from the Willow Brook Centre by the Link Romania van last Friday (20th November).

The celebratory event was attended by Bradley Stoke Town Councillors Ronnie Conway-Haskins and Ben Walker, Town Clerk David Chandler, as well as centre managers, staff and instructors from local Kumon centres. A cheque for £950 was also presented to Link Romania.

More photos of the Christmas Shoebox collection event: album; slideshow

In our PicasaWeb gallery:

• Bradley Stoke Christmas Lights [album; slideshow]
• Bradley Stoke Christmas 2008 [album; slideshow]

Useful holiday information:

• Christmas opening hours at our local shopping centres