Tree of Light switch-on

Communicare is bringing back its Tree of Light for the 18th year running, and the first switch-on is at St James by the Park Church in Shirley on Sunday 15 November at 5pm. It's a free event, so you can just turn up without booking.

If you've never come across it, the Tree of Light is a city-wide campaign that puts lights on trees outside three different venues across Southampton. Each light is sponsored to remember a loved one or a special cause, and the names go into a Remembrance Book and onto a dedicated page on Communicare's website. If you sponsor a light, you can also send in photographs, poems or verses to go with it. The switch-on events are when people gather to remember those they've lost, share memories and talk about isolation in the city.

Communicare describes the campaign as its response to loneliness and isolation, which they call society's 'silent epidemic' — one that only gets sharper as the festive season approaches. Every sponsored light supports their neighbourhood work, including befriending and 'good neighbours' services run by volunteers they call Communiteers. The switch-on at St James by the Park starts with a Memorial Service, followed by tea, cake and a craft session.

There are two more switch-ons after that: St Mark's Church in Banister Park on Saturday 5 December from 4.30pm to 5.30pm, and Woolston Millennium Garden on the same day, with the tree illuminated at 5.30pm. If you want to sponsor a light, it's a minimum donation of £8, and you've got until 31 December 2026 to do it. The events themselves are free to attend, so you don't need to sponsor a light to come along.