Southampton firm unveils Christmas tree made out of scaffolding

The colourful tree was lit up on Friday night among cheers from employees at Skill Scaffolding.

Staff gathered outside their offices on the industrial state in Nursling to take part in the switch-on event.

The Christmas tree made out of scaffolding was lit up on Friday evening (Image: Newsquest/Jose Ramos)

Office manager, Kelly Winter, 43, said: “We’re a scaffolding firm and we thought we could use our scaffolding for a sculpture as well.

“What better time than at Christmas when we can do our first scaffolding Christmas tree? And we have quite a lot of attention from it just because it stands out and it’s different.

“Every year we’re going to do a different structure or sculpture out of our scaffolding. So this is it.”

The firm is also fundraising for the charity Kids Out this Christmas and is appealing for people to donate Christmas toys for disadvantaged children.

Managing Director of Skill Scaffolding, Alan Skilton and his sister and office manager, Kelly Winter (Image: Newsquest/Jose Ramos)

Kelly said: “We’re currently fundraising for Kids Out charity, so we’ll be getting presents donated and then people drop off their presents here and then the charity itself comes and collects it and gives it to kids in rescue.”

The company expects around 100 presents to be donated but has encouraged anyone to get involved with the appeal.

Kelly said: “We would really love for people to donate and help to make Christmas a better one for the children in need.

“People can find all the information they need on our website and our social media.”

She added: “The whole team is behind this effort. The hope is that we started a little bit of a trend but also to raise awareness to the charity’s work and to bring some Christmas cheer, cheer the place up and make it look lovely.”