THE festive season was tossed aside at the weekend as people took part in an annual Christmas tree throwing competition.

Dozens of people gathered at Rosebourne Garden Centre, in Weyhill, for the event, which was back by popular demand, on Saturday.

There were two categories in the free competition - trees under 5ft and trees over 5ft.

Young and old took on the challenge to see how far they could throw their trees - with one contender managing to reach as far as five metres.

Many families returned for the second year of the Weyhill competition, while there were lots of enthusiastic new faces at the first competition at the garden centre’s new Aldermaston site, in Berkshire.

A spokesman for Rosebourne said: “We were delighted to see so many excited families getting involved in our popular competition.

“It was a great success and we’ll definitely do it again next year. People kept telling us just how much they enjoyed themselves and it was nice to see little ones taking part in the smaller tree categories.”

Prizes included a free Christmas tree for next year and an afternoon tea for two at Rosebourne.

The trees will now be recycled by being chipped and used as mulch around the sites.