The business group is running its inaugural festival of trees, which challenges local businesses to create and decorate their own themed Christmas tree.

Local firms, including the Greenock Telegraph, are currently hard at work creating their masterpieces, which will be displayed at Cardwell Garden Centre later this week.

Members of the public will be able to visit the garden centre and vote for their favourite, with a winner being crowned this Sunday.

Some businesses will have their trees sold off as part of a silent auction to raise cash for the local Festive Friends appeal, which provides Christmas gift boxes for struggling locals.

ICC’s membership manager Shari Workman said: “We’ve all been locked in for two years and even though things were better last year it wasn’t completely back to normal.

“Doing things like this brings that joy back into Christmas, it reminds us what we missed and the things we haven’t got to do in the last few years.”

Locals wishing to vote in the event can purchase ballots on the day for a pound, with all of the cash raised going towards the Chamber’s donation drive.

Shari hopes the event will highlight local businesses while also raising money for a charity that helps some of the area’s most vulnerable people.

She added: “Festive Friends give their gift boxes to people in Inverclyde who are lonely or sick.

“They also serve Christmas dinners, it’s a great way to help people who would otherwise be lonely on Christmas and not have a Christmas meal.

“Anybody in Inverclyde Royal Hospital on Christmas day gets a gift box to lift their spirits.

“They’re a great group of people.

“This starts a new tradition for us and we’d like to make this event a yearly thing.

“It also hopefully gives people in Inverclyde a chance to come in and learn a little bit more about local businesses.

“We want to say a big thanks to the garden centre for helping out with this, they’ve been wonderful.

“We want to make this an Inverclyde tradition so we’d love to see people bringing their family along to check out the trees and join in the fun.”

This article and image appeared in the Greenock Telegraph.