Star trails above the Christmas tree at Wakehurst, West Sussex

Star trails above the Christmas tree at Wakehurst, West Sussex

You're looking at the largest living Christmas tree in the UK, standing 118 feet (36 metres) tall outside the Elizabethan mansion at Wakehurst, previously known as Wakehurst Place, in West Sussex. Planted in the 1890s, the giant redwood was one of the first exotic trees to be put in place on the estate and is lit with 1,800 lights, which takes staff seven hours to decorate. The house and more than 500 acres of botanic gardens is owned by the National Trust but used and managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.