For many, it is the most visible symbol of Christmas in the North-East. Tony Kearney joins the team working behind the scenes to prepare Durham Cathedral for the festive season.

AS becomes very obvious, very quickly, the Norman stonemasons who designed the doorways of Durham Cathedral never considered how to squeeze a 26 ft Norway Spruce inside.

The cathedral's North Door, famed for its Sanctuary Knocker, is about 12ft wide - the Christmas tree is significantly wider.

It takes a four-strong team of cathedral groundsmen to manhandle the thing inside but, with a subtle combination of expertise and brute force, the centrepiece of the cathedral's Christmas decorations is teased inside, leaving a flurry of pine needles at the door.

Away from the frenzy in the region's shopping centres, Durham Cathedral is an oasis of calm and the lighting of the Christmas Tree and the Blessing of the Crib have become an annual event that attracts thousands seeking the true message of Christmas.

At 4.30pm tomorrow, six-year-old Esther Bancroft and the Dean, the Very Reverend Michael Sadgrove, will walk the length of the cathedral carrying a candle through the darkness to join the choir at the tree.

Her candle will trigger the lighting of 1,500 lights on the tree and the beginning of the service.

But ahead of the symbolic service has been a week of work to put up probably the region's most famous Christmas tree.

Only hours after being felled in the forests of Wolsingham, County Durham, it is taken by low-loader through the narrow streets of Durham City.

"We have done it that many times over the years that it has become fairly straightforward - and this one seems a bit smaller than previous years" said Phil Abson, the cathedral's plumber who, for the past 25 years, has headed the team with responsibility for the tree.

In years gone by, it was grown especially, at the Dean and Chapter woods at nearby Shincliffe, tended throughout the year by the cathedral's head gardener, then transported to what is now a World Heritage site on the back of a tractor, by a team of 20 men.

For the past decade, the tree has been sponsored by contractors Ward Brothers, which selects a specimen and delivers it to the door.

Then the first of the 1,500 bulbs are prepared.

Phil said: "We lay out the lights on the floor in a zig-zag and test whether the bulbs are working, just as you would at home."

Finally, it takes another two days for Phil and his workmates, Dave Carthy, from Houghton-le-Spring, Wearside, Keith Rankin, of Durham City, and Martyn Nelson, of Chester-le-Street, County Durham, to decorate it fully, using scaffolding to reach the uppermost branches.

Cathedral's services for Christmas

* Wednesday - 7pm, Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

* Christmas Eve - 3pm, Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (visitors are warned there will be no access to the main part of the cathedral between 12.30pm and 1.30pm for this hugely popular event and anyone arriving after 2pm should expect to stand)

* Christmas Eve, 11pm - Midnight Eucharist (doors open at 10.30pm)