Privacy notice
The Community Christmas Tree is a seasonal project. It runs from November 2026 to January 2027, and then everything is deleted. This page explains, in plain English, what we collect when you hang a decoration, what happens to it, and what we keep if you run a group tree.
Who we are
The tree is run by 1516 (1516.co.uk). For anything about your data, or to have a decoration removed, email info@1516.co.uk. On a group tree you can also ask the tree’s owner.
What we collect when you hang a decoration
- The name and message you type, and the decoration and colour you choose.
- A scrambled code made from your IP address (a salted hash). We never store your actual IP address. The code only lets us limit how many decorations one person can hang and block people who abuse the tree.
- A random code for your browser, for the same purpose.
- If you report a message: the reason you choose, and the same kind of scrambled IP code, so each person is only counted once.
Please don’t put personal details in your message: no surnames, addresses, phone numbers, emails or social media handles. We’ll reject messages that include them.
Where your decoration appears
On the community tree, every message is read by a person before it’s published. Once approved, your name and message are public:
- on this website, where anyone can see and search them;
- on our YouTube live stream, and in any recordings of it that YouTube keeps.
Group trees (links like christmas.1516.co.uk/t/…) belong to a company, school, club or family. Messages on them can be seen by anyone with the tree’s link (and its passcode, if it has one), but they never appear on our YouTube stream. The tree’s owner and the moderators they choose approve and remove messages; some groups choose to publish messages straight away.
We may reject or remove any decoration, for example if it’s unkind, contains personal details, or isn’t in the Christmas spirit.
What’s stored in your browser
We don’t use cookies, analytics, advertising or tracking. Your browser’s local storage keeps a list of the decorations you’ve hung, so you can see yours before it’s approved, along with the random browser code. You can clear this at any time in your browser settings.
If you run a group tree
- Your email address, and those of the moderators you invite, so you can sign in. Amazon Cognito sends the invitations and looks after passwords: we never see them.
- Your tree’s name, logo, welcome message and settings.
- If you paid: your payment reference and the amount. Stripe handles the payment itself, so we never see card details.
The sign-in page is run by Amazon Cognito, which uses its own cookies to keep you signed in.
Services we use
- Amazon Web Services, London region: hosting and storing decorations, and (Amazon Cognito) sign-in for people who run group trees.
- Cloudflare Turnstile: checks you’re a person and not a bot. Cloudflare processes technical information about your browser to do this.
- YouTube (Google): the live stream. Watching it is covered by Google’s privacy policy.
- Stripe: payments for group trees.
Why we can use this information
You choose to submit your name and message so they can be shown publicly. We use the scrambled IP code and the browser code because we have a legitimate interest in keeping a public, family-friendly project safe from spam and abuse.
How long we keep it
New decorations stop on 6 January 2027. By 31 January 2027 we delete everything we hold online, including all decorations, scrambled IP codes and logs. We may keep a private keepsake copy of the published tree (the approved names and messages only, with no IP or browser codes). The YouTube recordings stay on YouTube unless we remove them.
Group trees, their logos, and the sign-ins of their owners and moderators are deleted at the same time. Owners can download their tree’s messages before then. We keep payment records for as long as the law requires (usually six years).
Children
You need to be 13 or over to hang a decoration. If you’re younger, please ask a parent or guardian to hang one for you.
Your rights
You can ask us to show you, correct or delete a decoration you hung, or object to how we use your information. Email info@1516.co.uk with the decoration’s link (it looks like christmas.1516.co.uk/d/…), or with the name and message you used. We’ll remove it from the website and future streams, usually within a day.
If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
Last updated: 6 October 2026