Get ready for a real treat as we reveal the entries and winners of this year’s Christmas decoration competition at VICTA!
Everyone put so much thought and care into their decorations, from cheeky sprouts to scented wonders, our tree was transformed into a sensory festive wonderland! Thank you so much to everyone who entered and congratulations to the winner, we hope you all enjoy your well-earned treats.
Don’t forget, the decorations are now on display at the centre:mk if you would like to come and see them in person, find out more about where to find them at the bottom of this post.
Have fun browsing the gallery below, we hope it gives you inspiration of Christmassy crafts to try at home with your family.
First place
Maisie Hart, age 11
Meet Jingles and Joy, Maisie’s super cute brussels sprout twins. Here’s what Maisy told us about her decorations:
“Hello, we are Jingles and Joy, we are so excited to be on your tree this year and to see all of the other lovely decorations.”
Maisie has made two sprout decorations by decorating polystyrene balls with green layered tissue paper. She added green glitter and tiny green pompoms for extra texture. They have cute faces made by sticking on wobbly eyes and a drawn on smile. Maisie made each sprout a pair of glasses using twisted metal. Both sprouts have a sparkly foam card red Santa hat and are holding a foam candy cane. They are hung from the tree using tartan red ribbon.
Well done Maisie, they are the most cheerful sprouts we have ever seen!
Second place
Ellie Clark, age 11
Congratulations to Ellie who made this very characterful Christmas gonk!
If you aren’t familiar yourself with gonks, they are Scandinavian gnome-like creatures, they almost have the look of a miniature Santa.
Ellie’s gonk is made from a pair of socks, faux fur from a collar and a bag of dry rice. He has a very tall cone-shaped, stripy hat which covers his eyes and goes all the way down to his nose. His nose is perfectly round and he has a fury beard that covers his whole body! Ellie tells us more about how she made her gonk in the video below.
Well done Ellie, it is amazing what you have created out of some everyday materials!
How to make a Christmas gonk
Third place
Mera Bedran, age 10
Mera’s decoration is sure to tantilise all your senses! Here’s how Mera describes her scented tree:
A tree base of cinnamon sticks to bring Christmas alive. A star anise for the top of the tree. I also used black peppers to represent the balls, which I coloured in different colours, as well as jingle bells for the magic of Christmas, bows from pipe cleaners. And presents around the rainbow colour of VICTA.
We loved the thought Mera put into making her decoration accessible and the fine details down to the VICTA rainbow themed gifts. We wish you could all smell it in person!
Students at Dalton School
Congratulations to the pupils at Dalton School’s VI unit – Fatima (4), Umaymah (4), Benji (6), Isabel (8), Roaminie (10) and Bellah (10) who worked together to create this beautiful huge paper star! Each section of the star has been decorated individually with added textures, sparkle and colours. The star even lights up and has the school logo sitting in the centre.
Dayzie, age 12
Well done to Dayzie who made this super cute snowman to melt your hearts! He has been made by sticking two polystyrene balls together and is carrying a cotton bud walking stick. His eyes and smile have been stuck on with gold gems and he has a fluffy orange nose. His hat is made from purple paper twisted into a cone shape.
Erica, age 11
Erica has layered triangles of green paper to make a hanging Christmas tree ornament. She has used corrugated brown card to create a textured trunk and decorated the tree with purple dots and different coloured strips of tissue paper for the tinsel.
Finley, age 2
Finley’s Santa decoration has been made by making a hand print in clay! The hand shape has then been painted to look like Santa. With the hand hanging upside-down, the fingers form Santa’s beard and the thumb is the dangly part of Santa’s hat with a cotton wool bobble on the end. His face has been painted pink in the middle with stuck on wobbly eyes and a red pompom nose.
Hannah, age 16
Hannah has made a lovely, unique decoration! She has moulded and set a dark red, wax-like material with lashings of glitter into the shape of a reindeer and hung him as a decoration using a ribbon. He looks so pretty when the lights shine through him!
Keira, age 7
Keira has made Rudolf the red nosed reindeer using a triangle of brown card which forms the shape of his head. Another red triangle above makes his red Santa hat which has been decorated with cotton wool. Rudolf has stuck on wobbly eyes and a red pompom nose.
Harvey, age 10
This super sweet fluffy snowman was created by Harvey who used two white pompoms to form his snowman’s body and head. He has wobbly eyes, a tiny white pompom nose, a super fluffy red scarf and a red pipe cleaner twisted into a coil to make a very fun hat!
Harvey, age 10
Harvey has been very busy this year! He also made this delightful Rudolf pine cone decoration. He transformed a pine cone simply by adding two wobbly eyes, gold pipe cleaner antlers and a red pompom nose. A perfect project to try at home!
Louis, age 9
Louis has cut a huge circle from card and decorated it with bright blue tissue paper. He has made a raised outline for a triangular tree and base and decorated the tree in green and the base in red. The tree has been decorated using multi-coloured buttons. It’s a lovely large, bright and tactile decoration!
Oliver, age 11
Oliver has also made a decoration on a huge circle of card. His is decorated with bright green tissue paper, with a yellow tissue paper star in the middle. Again the star has a raised outline making it tactile and accessible. Multi-coloured buttons have been added to give extra colour and textures!
Poppy, age 9
Poppy has made a beautiful tree decoration by twisting different lengths of sparkly pipe cleaners around a red lollipop stick. The branches have been decorated with pompoms and stickers. What makes this decoration really special is it’s amazing smell! Poppy has infused the tree with cinnamon, frankincense and eucalyptus oil so that it both smells and feels of Christmas.
Annabelle (16), Georgie (10) and Robert (9)
We loved these ribbon decorations as they are so unique and multi-sensory! Lots and lots of ribbons have been twisted and knotted around hoops so that they flow out and dangle in different directions. They are wonderful to feel but also really bright as the ribbons are all the colours of the rainbow. They also make a lovely jingly sound when they moved which really brings them to life!
Bella, age 15
Bella has been busy making us lots of beautiful decorations, thank you Bella! First is this snowman made from polystyrene balls, he has stick arms, wobbly eyes, a black top hat, an orange stick nose and a foam green scarf with red stripes painted on.
Bella, age 15
Bella’s snowman came with a tiny baby snowman to match! He is decorated in exactly the same way as the big one just in miniature, they look lovely hanging together.
Bella, age 15
Bella has made Santa’s head using a polystyrene ball which has been painted a peach colour, she has given him wobbly eyes and painted on a big smile with a black dot for a nose. He has a tall red hat made from wrapped foam with a cotton wool bobble and a white foam sticker for his beard.
Bella, age 15
Bella has made a beautiful shimmery, frosty snowflake using lollipop sticks which she has crossed over each other to form the shape. Bella has then covered the sticks in light blue glitter and blue sequins to make it sparkle in the lights.
Bella, age 15
Bella made a lovely selection of smaller decorations using different foam shapes. There are two baubles, a present, a snowman and a Christmas tree. They have been decorated using silver balls, paint, craft sticks and glitter, making them full of different textures to enjoy.
Stevie, age 12
Stevie has cut out a large star shape and covered it in silver foil. The star has been decorated with pompoms, snowflake shaped sequins and stickers. In the centre has brailled a special message reading ‘Merry Christmas’.
Now on display at centre:mk
After enjoying them in the office, the decorations are now on display as part of the centre:mk Christmas display in Middleton Hall. You will find them near the wishing well just outside of the main John Lewis entrance. A big thank you to centre:mk for displaying them on their beautiful trees!
Ellie and her Gonk are both beautiful. Even the kitty cat couldn’t detract Ellie from explaining how she made her Gonk. This video is such a cuteness overload (even the doggie’s black waggy tail is cute). Congratulations Ellie and I wish you all the very best for your future. Love from Rae (Melbourne, Australia)