No Christmas tree in front of Arts Centre this year

The traditional Christmas tree in front of the Arts Centre will no longer be put up this year due to scheduled building work, the University has confirmed.

The Arts Centre does however have a smaller Christmas tree inside at present and trees are currently placed in the Oculus and in front of the Jaguar Land Rover building.

The building work is part of the Arts Centre 20:20 project, which will see an expansion of the building, including three new HD digital auditoria, a new art gallery and a re-developed public space for eating, drinking and socialising.

Several Christmas-themed events will be running in the Arts Centre, including the Christmas Lecture series, in which Warwick scientists entertain the public with “experiments and real-life science”. This year’s Christmas Lecture is taking place tonight from 7pm in Butterworth Hall.

Performances are also running over the Christmas period, such as Wilde Creatures, a musical based on Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales, and a festive remake of The Canterville Ghost.

A second-year student Sarah Colgan said: “I think if I were a first year I’d care more but Leam is pretty Christmassy so I can get that when I leave campus, but I loved that it was there last year so campus had a nice Christmas feel, and why can’t they just put it somewhere else? There’s a big one here in the Oculus it’s not decorated yet but hopefully it will be.”