After what has been over a decade at the shopping mall, the famous singing Christmas tree with a giant face on the front that has entertained – and admittedly, terrified – shoppers at the Trafford Centre during the festive season has now “retired” for good.
The Trafford Centre’s annual Christmas lights switch-on took place this past weekend, but many noticed that the huge tree known for “coming alive” and singing to kids near Waterstones on the ground floor of the centre was absent.
In case you don’t quite know what we’re referring to here, the towering tree – which was always decked out with colourful baubles and fairy lights – featured the face and voice of a man, which would burst into festive song at regular intervals as well as coming out with cheerful Christmas messages from his fir tree lips.
Over the years, it’s fair to say the iconic tree went on to amass quite the fanbase.
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Despite the fact that it was a somewhat scary sight for plenty of children, the tree’s popularity was very much evident when people shared their memories in the comments sections of a post to we shared to The Manc’s Facebook and Instagram last month reminiscing ahead of Christmas.
But now, bosses at the Trafford Centre have confirmed that the tree’s absence from this year’s festive displays are because it’s officially “retired”.
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“After many years of service, our singing Christmas tree is taking well deserved retirement” / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Explaining the tree’s absence to the MEN this year, Zoe Inman – Director at the Trafford Centre – said: “After many years of service, our singing Christmas tree is taking well deserved retirement.
“We hope visitors enjoy the rest of our spectacular Christmas lights across the malls, including an enormous sparkling chandelier in the Main Dome.”
Although there was more lowkey Christmas lights switch-on this year due to COVID safety precautions, the Trafford Centre has revealed that a full programme of ‘Tinseltown’ festive events are to be announced later this week to take over the outdoor site that has just finished hosting the Halloween SPOOKFEST.
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Extended opening hours at the centre have also just been confirmed – with shops opening an hour earlier at 9am from Monday 11 December, as well as four days of late-night shopping the week before Christmas from Monday 20 – Thursday 23 December (inclusive).
“This year at the Trafford Centre, we’re going even bigger, better and louder than ever before with our Christmas cheer,” Zoe continued.
“We’ve decided to kickstart the festivities by turning on our spectacular Christmas lights early!
“We have a whole host of unmissable festive events to announce, as well as late night shopping and festive music on the malls.”
Manchester Remembers Foundation announces its return for a special anniversary charity match
Danny Jones
The Manchester Remembers Foundation has announced the return of its charity football game in 2027, which will coincide with a special anniversary close to all Mancunians.
For those unaware, the MCR Remembers charity matches were set up in memory of the Manchester Arena victims, helping raise funds for the families of the 22 who sadly died in the attack.
While the fifth iteration of what started out as an annual vision, set for this past summer, was sadly cancelled back in May and the Foundation itself seemingly shut down, the co-founders have decided they’re not ready for it all to end just yet.
Somewhat quietly confirming the return of the fundraising footy match on social media, the next fixture will be returning next year, which marks a full decade since the tragedy.
Folks, having time to reflect we’ve decided that we just couldn’t go out like we did. No matter how difficult things get we have to keep going.
We are planning a spectacular return for the 10th anniversary in 2027. Plans and talks to begin shortly pic.twitter.com/ZRTmAJalov
— The McrRemembers Foundation™️⚽️🐝 (@McrRemembers) October 2, 2025
Writing a slightly lengthier statement on Instagram, MCR Remembers creators Aaron Lee and Paul Corrigan said: “No matter how difficult things get and how little support we get from people in positions to help, we have to keep going.
“We take inspiration from the brave and courageous people who were so closely involved with the arena attack. We will continue to remember those affected and celebrate their legacy.
“We are planning a spectacular return for the 10th anniversary in 2027. Plans and talks to begin shortly We will reassess after that event. As always, thank you to those that stuck by us. We see you, and we appreciate every single one of you. Stay tuned. Aaron / Paul.”
Lee – a local and a former police officer on 22 May 2017 – set up the organisation with his friend and fellow fundraiser (10 marathons in 10 months) with the aim of not only honouring those lost but also to help raise vital funds for their families and native bereavement charities.
They’re two incredibly inspiring individuals who have done a lot to help those in and around Greater Manchester, as well as keep that date in our heads and hearts.
Although information is still scarce in these early stages, The MCR Remembers Foundation has assured that details regarding exactly when and where the game is set to take place will be shared over the coming week and months.
It goes without saying that we here at The Manc are glad to see the moving charity match being confirmed for a comeback, even if it’s only for a one-off, and can’t wait to see which ex-pros and celebrity players get involved.
Then again, who knows? A successful return could signal the start of a fully-fledged revival, and we sincerely hope it does.
Watch this space and see you next year for the anniversary edition of Manchester Remembers 2027.
The ‘most complained-about’ show in Britain over the last five years has been revealed
Danny Jones
The TV show with the most complaints in Britain over the past half-decade has seemingly been confirmed, and we can’t exactly say it’s given everyone watching a good morning…
Yes, it’s GMB.
Well, that’s according to research by Aura Print, anyway; they dug down into the official Ofcom data to try and discover which British TV programme got the most complaints – an unwanted accolade that was earned quite comfortably by Good Morning Britain.
This might not come as too much of a surprise to many of you, especially regular viewers over the last few years, with GMB often popping up in headlines alongside phrases like ‘viewers complain’ and ‘Ofcom’. Either way, here’s what the study found:
Rank
Programme
Service
Number of complaints (2021-2025)
1
Good Morning Britain
ITV1
91,890
2
Love Island
ITV2
66,252
3
Julia Hartley-Brewer
TalkTV
18,525
4
Dan Wootton Tonight
GB News
9,207
5
King Charles III: The Coronation
ITV1
8,389
6
This Morning
ITV
7,387
7
Celebrities: What’s Happened to Your Face?
Channel 5
7,082
8
Oprah with Meghan and Harry
ITV
6,456
9
I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!
ITV1
6,203
10
Jeremy Vine
Channel 5
4,982
11
Big Brother
ITV1 / ITV2
4,678
12
Lorraine
ITV
4,675
13
Breakfast with Kay Burley
Sky News
3,467
14
Emmerdale
ITV1
2,405
15
Vanessa
5
1,986
16
Loose Women
ITV
1,799
17
Married at First Sight UK
E4
1,748
18
Coronation Street
ITV
1,348
19
Lee Anderson’s Real World
GB News
1,668
20
Friday Night Live
Channel 4
1,630
21
Headliners
GB News
1,498
22
Ant Payne
Capital FM
1,430
23
Naked Education
Channel 4
1,413
24
The Brit Awards
ITV1
1,157
25
Today with Samantha Washington
Sky News
1,270
As you can see, GMB has racked up nearly 92,000 complaints over the past five years, which is well over 25k more than the next most inflammatory.
The rest of the top five is also made up of other mainstream news commentary programmes (four out of five), bar the second runner-up in Love Island, with 66,252.
It’s also worth noting that ITV is the most complained-about broadcaster of any network on the list. GB News came in second with three different shows on the list: Dan Wootton Tonight, Lee Anderson’s Real World and Headliners.
Certainly not surprising whatsoever was the particular episode that received the most complaints of all those in the history of Good Morning Britain, which went out on 8 March 2021.
In case you haven’t guessed which one this is already, it was the infamous Piers Morgan episode discussing Meghan Markle’s mental health, which was reported to Ofcom a whopping 57,973 times.
This feels like a lifetime ago, but we remember it receiving most Ofcom complaints Britain had ever seen at the time.
Yes, more than half of the complaints they have ever received come after ONE viral moment.
In terms of particularly divisive presenters, second only to Piers Morgan, Julia Hartley-Brewer was the next most complained-about presenter, racking up a total of 18,500 complaints.
GB News’ Dan Wootton came in at number three with 9,207 complaints, but also worth noting that plenty of what most would consider popular mainstream entertainment IPs like I’m A Celeb and Big Brother racked up over 10k collectively during this period.
You can find the full breakdown of Ofcom data from 2021-2025 right HERE.
Emily Sergeant -
4th November 2021 
