The Christmas Pine by Julia Donaldson

’The Christmas Pine’ is a new poem by Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo and a former children’s laureate, which was commissioned by The Poetry Society for its annual Look North More Often programme in 2020. The poem is performed here by Reinfrancis Bondoc, Poppy-Beau Pawsey and Fabio Cucinotta, Year 6 pupils from St Mary of the Angels Primary School in London, following a day of exciting writing and performance workshops from poet Coral Rumble, organised by The Poetry Society. The poem celebrates the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, an annual gift from Oslo to London as continued thanks for the UK’s support of Norway in the Second World War. You can see the poem on a banner designed by Marcus Walters around the base of the tree in Trafalgar Square throughout the festive period. Every year since 2009, The Poetry Society has commissioned a poem welcoming Norway’s gift of a Christmas tree to London’s Trafalgar Square as part of its Look North More Often project. Find out more, including this year’s poem and previous poems, here: