To Tree or Not to Tree: Community Perspectives and Sustainable Solutions for Christmas Decorations

CommonsideFinalProposalPDF

Executive Summary

The Commonside Community Development Trust is an organization based in the London Borough of Merton that seeks to improve the poverty and unemployment within their community through running programs out of the New Horizon Centre based in Pollards Hill.

In recent years, the Commonside Trust was approached by community members with a request to install a holiday display, often centered on a Christmas tree, outside the New Horizon Centre. While the display is intended to foster community pride, social connectedness and celebration, it also raises concerns regarding cultural sensitivity, environmental sustainability, and practical feasibility.

            Within Pollards Hill, approximately 40% of residents identify as Black, Asian, and Minority (BAME) groups and many are born outside the UK. Additionally, recent events, including community tensions and misinformation related to asylum seekers, as well as broader cultural hifts in the UK towards greater secularism and multiculturalism, highlight the importance of carefully considering how public displays reflect community values and promote inclusivity rather than division.

            In addition to cultural considerations, the environmental impact of different holiday display options, such as natural cut trees, artificial trees, and lighting, was important to note. The Commonside Trust, with its commitment to community well-being and sustainability, recognizes the need to balance these factors while respecting the diversity of local traditions and fostering a sense of belonging for everyone in the community.

            To address these challenges, the goal of this project is to evaluate the feasibility of a December 2025 winter holiday display and determine the most desirable and feasible way to celebrate for all communities at the New Horizon Centre. Our team focused on four objectives:

1. Assess the opinions of the New Horizon Centre’s staff, volunteers, and patrons, as well as the trustees of the Commonside Community Development Trust, regarding how the community should celebrate winter holidays.
2. Solicit the opinions of community stakeholders in East Mitcham regarding the installation of a holiday display outside the New Horizon Centre.
3. Identify how community centers in other communities have determined how to celebrate winter holidays to strengthen community pride and involvement.
4. Assess the technical options, cost, and environmental impacts of decoration and Christmas tree selection for the New Horizon Centre, identifying the most feasible and desirable option to drive community involvement.

To accomplish these objectives, our team distributed online surveys, held unstructured conversations with patrons, and conducted semi-structured interviews with staff, trustees, local stakeholders, and nearby community centers. We further supplemented this data collection with technical analysis and research on lighting technologies, life-cycle costs, and estimated quotations for potential displays.

Survey results from the New Horizon Centre community showed that community members most preferred a celebration focused on a Christmas tree, with a strong desire for a winter gathering and festive lighting. Casual conversations and interviews revealed three recurring themes of a desire for greater community involvement and gatherings, strong interest in festive lighting, and requests for better communication from the Centre about upcoming events. One staff member noted that some Muslim families ask that Christmas symbols be removed from rooms they are using for prayer. However, a trustee cautioned that removing Christmas entirely could alienate those who celebrate it, concluding that it is impossible to please all groups and advised organizers to make a clear decision that respects community diversity while still maintaining traditional festive celebrations.

Our team’s examination of community stakeholder perspectives in East Mitcham similarly emphasized the importance of balancing cultural diversity with a shared sense of community. One stakeholder stated that the Polish and Ukrainian refugee population growth has brought diverse holiday traditions to the community. They recommended making the event winter-themed and incorporating lights and a market without fully removing Christmas elements from the celebration. The finding is critical to understanding how the community envisions a successful display and how the project can best meet its goal of evaluating the feasibility of an inclusive, community-centered event.

To better understand how other organizations approach the celebration of winter festivities, we interviewed three community centers. Two of the centers did not install decorations themselves due to limited staff and space capacity. Instead, they allowed individual groups to decorate their own events and required them to remove decorations afterward. While their practices differed from Commonside’s, one interviewee emphasized the importance of consulting the whole community that the center serves and discussed the challenge of balancing inclusivity and tradition. Another interviewee stated that community cohesion depends on integration of all members and shared participation, which is a relevant discussion of the diverse population of Pollards Hill. Although these organizations did not offer direct solutions, their feedback showed the importance of designing a celebration focused on including all members of the community.

While survey responses showed the strongest interest in a Christmas tree, our technical assessment showed that installing a large outdoor tree is not feasible for the center due to limited electrical infrastructure, concerns about vandalism, and negative environmental impact. Our team found that, in contrast, modern LED lighting offers a more sustainable and cost-effective alternative. We further compared the cost, durability, and practicality of different LED lighting options and determined three viable options:

1. Smart LED kits that are simple yet expensive
2. Ready-to-run kits that are inexpensive, but require technical knowledge
3. Outsourcing the entire installation to a separate organization

Of the display options considered, a smart LED system stood out as the most practical, sustainable, and straightforward solution. Therefore, our team recommends that the New Horizon Centre hosts a weekly community gathering centered around a smart LED light show throughout December.