'I decorate the tree at Downing Street'

Jane Ingram, 66, and her husband Andrew, 77, run The Tree Barn, a Christmas tree farm in Oxfordshire.

- ELLIE FENNELL

Living on Christmas Common in Oxfordshire, it’s perhaps no surprise Andrew and I have been growing and selling Christmas trees for more than 50 years. We now sell about 14,000 every winter, and thousands of decorations.

In 2011, we won the British Christmas Tree Growers Association’s (BCTGA) competition to provide Downing Street’s 18-foot tree.

We supplied it twice after that, then in 2017, fellow Christmas shop owner Charlotte Gilbert and I were invited to decorate it as well. So far, we've done it every year since.

We include a few themed bits (in the Jubilee year it was a corgi with a crown), as well as London-related decorations in the lower branches. Even after decorating the tree for many years, the experience of turning up in Downing Street with our decorations always feels surreal.

I’m grateful to my grownup daughters Jessica and Rebecca, who work in our shop during the rush.

With my husband outside in all weathers overseeing the car park, it’s truly a family business. Just before Christmas, the girls also decorate our own house and tree, as I’m too tired by then!

When I drive around, I love seeing all the trees adorned with lights, twinkling in windows. It makes all the effort worthwhile to see every tree has found its home.

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