ONE of the oldest family Christmas trees in the country is again the centrepiece of festive celebrations this year for Minehead couple Nigel and Lynn Brimble.

The two feet high tree is now 102 years old, having been handed down to Mrs Brimble by her late mother Edna Beavers, for whom it was bought on her first Christmas in 1921.

Mrs Brimble’s grandparents Herbert and Ethel Baines, who lived in Corsham, Wiltshire, were believed to have bought the tree from a Woolworth’s store in Chippenham.

Since then, the tree has been put up in the living room on December 1 every year and taken down again after the 12 days of Christmas on January 6.

Mrs Brimble said: “My grandmother assured me it never missed a Christmas, even during the war.

“In between, it goes in the attic in a box.

“It will probably continue to go down through family on my sister’s side because she has children.”

The tree is also decorated in ‘very old’ baubles which Mr and Mrs Brimble bought from a charity chop after moving to Minehead in 2001.

She said: “We found a cigarette box which had on it ‘Aunty May’s Christmas trimmings’ and inside were these old decorations but we do not know how old they are.”

Recent national publicity about a similar tree bought in 1920 in Banbury which has just been sold at auction for £2,600 has made Mrs Brimble aware of the potential value of her family heirloom.

“I shall wrap mine up more carefully now,” she said.