Young poets scoop prizes in creative competition

Dec. 12, 2012 - PRLog -- Catsfield Christmas Tree Farm, near Battle, East Sussex, challenged youngsters to come up with a poem which included a festive fir.

The two lucky winning students have each won a box of books for their school courtesy of Usborne Children’s Books, a tree for their school and a £25 voucher for themselves.

Clive said: “We were amazed by the response to our first-ever Christmas poetry competition. We received lots of entries and a great deal of time and effort was put into the poems. I am delighted that local poet Alice Allen agreed to judge the children’s work, because the quality was far better than I ever imagined.”

Alice, a working poet added: “Judging the Catsfield Christmas Tree Farm Poetry Competition has been an honour and a delight. The standard of entries was very high. I was impressed by the variety and range of ways in which the entrants dealt with the subject. There were some rich narrative poems telling the story of the tree: animals curling up under its branches on a snowy night, or a family’s story of putting up their tree and decorating it together. There were many vibrant poems dazzling with rhymes and boisterous humour, and some excellent and unusual imagery; one poem featured people eating a roast turkey ‘the size of a shark’s jaw’. Another poem had a snowman throwing his tummy as a snowball at a tree.

“By the time I had read all the poems I was awash with Christmas spirit having spent time with sleeping trees, singing trees, sad trees, cold trees wanting a warm coat, snoring trees, trees stamping the snow off their feet and trees standing in Father Christmas’ shadow. It was extremely difficult to choose a winner from each category.”

The competition had two categories - one for Key Stage 1 and another for Key Stage 2.
The winner of the Key Stage 1 category was five year-old Leroy from Hollington Primary School. Winner of the key Stage 2 category was 9 year-old Harry from Catsfield Church of England Primary School .

Catsfield Christmas Tree Farm www.catsfieldchristmastreefarm.com is a long-established grower and retailer based in Catsfield, East Sussex.  It has been a member of the British Christmas Tree Growers’ Association since 1994 and has been growing and supplying Christmas trees for over 20 years.  

Catsfield Christmas Tree farm shop is open daily from 9am - 6pm except Sunday when it is open 10am - 4pm. The farm is open on Christmas Eve until 6pm. Trees are cut as late as possible to keep them fresh. The business also uses sustainable, environmentally friendly methods to farm its trees.

ENDS

Notes to editors: For further information contact: Suzi Christie on 01435 830031 or at suzi@blueberry-pr.co.uk