A TOWERING Christmas from a North-East forest will be delivered to the Houses of Parliament next week.

The Sitka spruce from Kielder Forest, Northumberland will be erected in Westminster, where it will stand under Big Ben and become one of the most photographed Christmas trees in the world.

The Westminster Christmas tree started its journey as it was loaded on a huge truck bound for the capital yesterday (Thursday December 3). It will be installed on Sunday (November 29).

This year the Kielder tree’s extraction will be shown as part of a feature on BBC TV’s The One Show.

Kielder Forest and Water Park offers some of the UK’s biggest Christmas trees and many have already been transported across the country to take pride of place in towns and cities from Kings Lynn to Worcester and Manchester to Kingston on Thames.

With the annual departure of the Westminster Christmas tree to London, the Christmas tree sales centres across the Forestry Commission are getting ready to start their sales to the public too.

There are Forestry Commission Christmas tree sales centres across England. For a full list visit www.forestry.gov.uk/christmas.