Northwest Church on the corner of Ann and Kathleen streets in South Tamworth was, over the weekend, transformed into a huge green-and-red gift. 

The gift was created using metres upon metres of green shadecloth, more than 60 metres of red ribbon and hundreds of strings of fairy lights to add some sparkle. 

And it took six volunteers almost all day Saturday to construct. 

The idea of wrapping up the church was to create a talking point and promote the church’s Christmas production, The Gift.

Event producer of The Gift, Marilyn Stebbings, said she hoped having the church wrapped in such a way would perhaps encourage people to really think about 

the true meaning of Christmas. 

“Yes, Christmas is about presents and gifts, but it is more importantly about the gift of spending time with loved ones and the gift Jesus gave to people, the gift of Himself,” she said. 

“We hope having the church as a gift will act as a visual cue for people to talk about what’s important to them at this special time of year,” she said. 

This year the church will also host a free community production and family event. 

“We will have three performances of The Gift, this year’s Christmas production, which features multi-media and other performances,” Mrs Stebbings said. 

All three performances will be held on Sunday, December 16 – at 10am, 2pm and 5.30pm.

“Each performance runs for about an hour,” Mrs Stebbings said. 

“The 10am performance and 5.30pm performance will be followed by a barbecue.

“We’ll also have other activities – like Santa 

photos. Anyone and everyone is more than welcome to attend.”