A FUNERAL directors was offering mulled wine and mince pies yesterday as it put up a memorial Christmas tree.

Jill Glencross Independent Funeral Director decided to put the tree up for a second year outside the funeral directors in The Square, Dalston.

The tree has tags with the names of people's loved ones hanging on it.

Jill Glencross said: "We put it up last year because we weren’t able to have memorials services and we thought it was a good idea.

"There was such a good response. People from all over the place asked to put a tag on, even from funerals that we hadn’t done.

"This year, because we’re socialising again a bit, we thought we would mark it by having carols, mince pies and mulled wine."

Jill said that the memorial tree will be going up every year because it has been such a success.

People are invited to hang a tag with the name of their loved one on the tree.

Jill Glencross Funeral Directors will provide the tags and laminate them for anyone who is interested.

People can also hang personalised baubles or tags on the tree.

Jill did this, hanging a special bauble in memory of her dad who sadly passed away in August.

She said: "A family bought me that. A person that I’d looked after got that made for me.

"I was quite emotional when I put [the bauble] on the tree."

She added: "A lot of families have made their own."

There were more than 200 tags on the tree last year.

These have been added to the top of this year's tree

Jill said that there could be even more this time around, as the funeral directors has looked after 400 funerals this year.

The tree is much bigger this year though, as a 12-foot one was donated by Eden Valley Hospice.

There is also a collection bucket, so people can donate to the hospice when visiting the tree.