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.”
All the free things you can get with a Great Manchester Run finisher’s medal this year
Danny Jones
What’s the best part about doing the Great Manchester Run, we hear you ask? All the freebies, of course. You’ll be glad to hear there are more free things than ever for finishers this year.
More than 35,000 runners are set to take on the challenge, be it the half marathon or the 10k, and we firmly believe every single one of these legends should be entitled to as much free stuff as possible.
If it were up to us, they wouldn’t pay for anything all day, but hey, we make don’t make the rules.
So yeah, without further ado, here are all the freebies you can get for taking part in the Great Manchester 2025.
Free stuff and offers for Great Manchester Runners to cop in 2025
Without further ado, here are a tonne of freebies, discounts and deals you can grab by simply flashing your finisher’s medals:
Credit: The Manc/Supplied
Dishoom –Complimentary 330ml Kingfisher/Kingfisher Zero (0.0%) for anyone with anyone dining with a finisher’s medal.
Blacklock –Free glass of fizz on us with your medal.
Maray – Free glass of fizz/pint (or non-alcoholic beer/soft) for anyone with a medal who is dining on Sunday
Electric Shuffle – Free house wine, prosecco or pint for anyone with a 2025 medal.
Salon Madre – 2-4-1 margaritas all day Sunday for anyone with a race medal.
Suki Suki – Free bao bun for anyone with a medal.
Refuge/Kimpton Clocktower Hotel – 100 free pints of Manchester Union Beer (first come, first served)
Hello Oriental – Discounted soft serve ice cream, plus a free beer or soft drink with any meal for all finishers
The Shack – Flash your medal to claim a free glass of Prosecco or beer, plus parties with medals get 20% off their food bill.
Dough Religion (House of Social) – half price slice at Manchester Jazz Festival on Sunday
The purpose of this happy hour spotting app has definitely been a topic of discussion between friends while over a few drinks on a night out, and now this idea has been brought to life.
Titled ‘Hoppy’, the all-new app shows you all the best happy hours in Manchester, even going as far as planning nights out for you and telling you what times each venue is hosting their exclusive offers.
Crazy Pedro’s are just one of the bars featured on this Happy Hour app.Trof is another venue that has a happy hour offering and has made its way onto the app.
Whether you’re after £6 margs at Ramona, two for one cocktails at Rewind or £4 draught pints and cider over at Arcane Bar, this app spells everything out for you plain and simple.
They even go as far as using their social media accounts to plan nights out in Manchester to make sure you get the most bang for your buck.
In a post on their Instagram, they plan out the ultimate Tuesday night in the Northern Quarter, making the most of the various happy hours in the neighbourhood.
The happy hour app stops off at multiple pubs and bars, including frequently visited watering holes like Wolf at the Door, Trof, Bay Horse Tavern and Smithfield Social, before ending the night at Crazy Pedro’s.
Sounds like all the ingredients for the perfect crawl, if you ask us.
Revolución de Cuba, has a huge marg menu, is another drinks spot on Hoppy.Mother Mary’s serves some seriously good Guinness alongside some savvy savings too.
Go on, tell us looking at those hasn’t made you thirsty…
Next time you go out for drinks, why not download this happy hour spotting app along for the ride with you, and you won’t only thank yourself but your bank account will too.
‘Hoppy’ is available on the App Store now for everyone to make the most of their next night out and make finding the best happy hours in Manchester even easier HERE.
See you at the pub – provided happy hour is still on, of course.
Emily Sergeant -
4th November 2021 
