AS becomes obvious very quickly, the Norman stonemasons who designed the doorways of Durham Cathedral never considered how to squeeze a 26ft 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 tree 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 of 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 which attracts thousands of people seeking the true message of Christmas.

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

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

But ahead of the symbolic service, is a week of work which goes into putting up the region's most famous Christmas tree.

A matter of hours after being felled in the forests of Wolsingham, it is transported by low-loader through the streets of Durham City.

The tree is laid on the floor where it is manoeuvred into a tilting bucket fixed to a board bolted to the stone floor and, finally, it is hauled upright in to position beneath the Jesse Window.

"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 led the team with annual responsibility for the tree.

In years gone by, the tree was grown at the Dean and Chapter woods at Shincliffe, tended throughout the year by the cathedral's head gardener and then transported to the 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, who select a specimen and deliver it to the door.

Christmas magic doesn't happen overnight. It takes best part of a day to have the tree standing tall and the following day the gardeners arrive to give it a makeover, a couple of branches strategically placed to fill in any holes.

Then the 1,500 light bulbs are prepared. Mr Abson 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 Mr Abson and his colleagues Dave Carthy, of Houghton-le-Spring, Keith Rankin, of Durham City, and Martyn Nelson, of Chester-le-Street, to decorate the tree, using scaffold to reach the uppermost branches.

But despite his years of experience in caring for the cathedral tree, back at Mr Abson's home in Meadowfield, Durham City, it is quite a different story.

"We have an artificial tree," he admits. "My job is to bring it down from the loft and after that the wife sorts it out. I think I have quite enough on here."