Each year, Fakenham Parish Church hold a Christmas Tree Festival, where they invite local charities to decorate a tree and provide attendees the opportunity to donate to their work.
When we visited in 2023, for Fakenham's 23rd Christmas Tree Festival, it was a little like walking into a multicoloured, glowing forest. One tree was made with things that a school class had collected on a forest walk. Another featured a Very Hungry Caterpillar making its way around the branches. 
One charity caught our attention after making the bold decision to leave their tree plain to symbolize the poverty experienced by the people they support.
Rev Tracy Jessop shared: “Each charity is given 36 hours to decorate their tree and they are all so different. We also have a hand carved wooden ‘Tree of Life’ above the baptism font and a collection of Christmas trees were people can write their prayers and hang them to the tree. Last year we had around 5,000 prayers, many around peace on earth, loss, bereavement or healing. Throughout the Festival pray on the hour, on the half hour, each hour one charity is provided for and the charities provide their prayer. At the times of prayer there is such a stillness.”
But where do 
Lifewords resources come into this? Tracy continued: “When I was thinking through what we needed for this year’s Christmas Tree Festival, I thought of Lifewords and remembered that I’d been surprised by how many booklets had been taken away last year. I also took Meet the Cast into the local primary schools in Fakenham last year too, to give the kids something to take home that their grown-ups can help them read through and understand.”
“We share Lifewords resources throughout the year, and have chosen not to staff our resource table as we want to make it easier for people to take booklets away. I grew up with a Bible in my house, but I’m not convinced that a lot of people have Bibles in their homes, or if they do it’s not often used. I want to be able to tell people about Jesus, to be open-doorly so that others can understand who Jesus is.
“The resource that has gone really this year is the Little Book of Prayer. We are really thankful for your resources because they are used, they are absolutely used.
“This is a place where people should be able to come without fear of rejection, so if people cancome here and just get half an hour of comfort and feel like they that the Lord’s wrapped his arms around them then that is good. Through this, we are hopefully offering even just a small introduction to God."
