Yorkshire Vet to help pick Downing Street's Christmas tree at South Yorkshire farm

A celebrity vet familiar for his work helping animals in need on the Yorkshire Dales has been tasked as a special judge in a competition to pick this year's Christmas tree for the Prime Minister in Downing Street.

Peter Wright, famous for his appearances on Channel 5's The Yorkshire Vet, has been confirmed as a judge to pick the best Christmas tree and wreath - at Billingley Christmas Tree Farm in South Yorkshire - on October 19. 

The competition has been organised by the British Christmas Tree Growers Association (BCTGA) which has over 300 members who plant, grow and sell around six million trees per year.

BCTGA - who have arranged the event since 1999 - said one overall winner will take the title of champion Christmas Tree Grower of the Year 2023 to provide the Downing Street Christmas tree this December, while the winner of the champion festive wreath category will supply the wreath for the door of the PM Rishi Sunak's residence at Number 10.

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Billingley Christmas Tree Farm - third generation farmers who are tenants of the Wentworth Fitzwilliam Estate - said they diversified the farm to sell Christmas Trees in 2001 after the Foot and mouth outbreak in 2001.

Heather Parry, managing agent for BCTGA, said the event demonstrated the resilience of farmers and growers to produce strong Christmas trees despite ‘climatic challenges' earlier in the year.

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"The best Christmas trees in Britain will be brought together in Barnsley for this annual competition and it's a spectacle to behold, with the judges given an especially tough task to pick a winner," Ms Parry added.

"It is a wonderful occasion which celebrates the hard work and skill of growers across the UK ahead of their busiest time of the year, and it really does demonstrate the unrivalled quality of local sustainably grown Christmas trees."

See also: Alex James, The Big Feastival and the success of his diversification - 'he has completely thrown his hat into farming'