REAL Christmas trees can continue to spread joy after the festive season thanks to a charity tree recycling scheme.

For the past three years St Luke’s Hospice has collected and chipped Christmas trees after the twelfth night, in return for a donation to the hospice.

This year St Luke’s will be offering to collect real Christmas trees on January 4 and 5 from homes in CW1,CW2, CW4, CW5, CW6, CW7, CW8, CW9, CW10, CW11 and SY14.

Jane Thompson, the hospice’s head of event management, said: “After the enjoyable festivities of Christmas, it is always a shame when you have to start taking the decorations down.

“Why not keep that lovely warm Christmassy feel by donating to have it taken away and knowing you are supporting patient care at the hospice.”

To get a Christmas tree collected visit the JustHelping site and type in your postcode.

The minimum donation is £5 and 80 per cent goes to the hospice with 20 per cent going to charities chosen by the organisations that help with the collection.

Jane said: “We have had such a great response over the years so we are thrilled to carry on this great service with the support of JustHelping who take the payments and create all the mapping systems.

“The income, which last year was almost £3,000, is a terrific boost to our funds right at the beginning of the New Year.”