History


Since the inaugural project in 2009, the famous Norwegian Christmas Tree displayed each Christmas in Trafalgar Square has been celebrated through poetry as part of a collaboration between the Poetry Society, the Mayor of Oslo’s Office and the Norwegian Embassy.

A Norwegian Christmas tree has been given annually to the people of London since 1947, as a symbol of peace and friendship, in recognition of British support during World War II.

An extensive education project has seen poets going into primary schools each year to encourage new writing inspired by the gift of the tree. Poets and schoolchildren follow the progress of the giant spruce tree at each stage of its journey – from its felling in a forest on the outskirts of Oslo to its arrival at the Lincolnshire port of Immingham, and on to Trafalgar Square. The children’s poems are then used to inspire a new poem, written by a different poet each year, which is displayed on banners around the tree throughout the Christmas period. Kit Wright wrote Tree Song in 2009, John Agard wrote Green Magi in 2010 and Roger McGough wrote Roots in 2011.

Further poems, listed below, were commissioned as part of the project:

Growing a Tree –written by Immingham schoolchildren with Kevin Crossley-Holland in 2010
Gerd – by Norwegian poet Nordahl Grieg, in a new version by Philip Gross in 2010.

The first Thursday of December marks the official lighting-up ceremony in Trafalgar Square. As the lights are switched on, local schoolchildren who have been involved in the project perform the final poem to the crowds in Trafalgar Square.