All along the Arun Valley and Sussex Coast Lines, Christmas Trees and decorations have been popping up. These were not the work of the Christmas Elves, but rather the station partners, or station staff. Click here to see the photos.
Trees have been donated by various local suppliers, decorations made by art groups, school pupils, and the Men in Sheds groups – or sometimes by station staff themselves.
Wendy Peters from Keep Lancing Lovely explained what had been going on at Lancing station:
“Christmas tree in ticket office, Bike dressed for Christmas, Pallett trees re decorated. Christmas wreath from Lions, several of the community have been knitting the decorations on the tree, Men in Sheds made the stars, so a community spirit all round”
And from Deirdre Carolin, Friends of Angmering Station (FOAS):
“The youth group of ‘FOAS’ made a wide variety of decorations for the trees in the Booking Office and also made up decorated jars of them to give as gifts to all the station staff.
The real tree was donated by FOAS and the pallet tree made by one of our new volunteers recruited during Lockdown.
The wooden decorations on the outdoor trees along the Westbound platform were cut out by another of our new volunteers. The FOAS art group then made the decorations up into art packs (which included all paint and pens necessary to complete the project) which were distributed to members of the community who have been unable to attend their usual art workshops.”
At Pulborough Station, the Christmas tree with a sturdy stand was delivered by Station Partner Dorset House school in Bury, donated by Charlie’s Farm Shop.
Rowena Tyler, Line Officer at SCRP said: “ It’s been marvellous to see everyone getting into the Christmas spirit, and as a lot of the people who travel by train are essential workers, they have really appreciated these efforts to bring a bit of cheer to their local stations.”
