Secrets of the Christmas Factory: Yorkshire estate Stockeld Farm known as Oakwell Hall on Emmerdale to be featured on new Channel 5 series that looks into how six traditional festive items are made

Secrets of the Christmas Factory will explore the processes it takes to produce six different traditional Christmas items: Christmas trees, brussel sprouts, Christmas cards, gingerbread, Christmas jumpers and tinsel.

Christmas is a year-long journey for producers of these festive goods, who work around the clock to make sure Christmas Day runs smoothly with plenty of festive spirit.

The series, which will air its first episode on Friday, December 15, 2023 on Channel 5 at 6pm, will enlighten viewers on how each item is made, answering questions we all have such as how long it takes to grow a Christmas tree.

Insight into how Christmas trees are made will be covered in the first episode where presenters visit Stockeld Farm Estate in North Yorkshire, to find out when pine needles are perfect and the firs are fit to fell.

The vast estate is named after the half knight’s fee of land held by Nigel de Stockeld in 1166, formerly part of the estates owned by William de Percy and has been selling Christmas trees since 2006. Stockeld is known to many people as Oakwell Hall from ITV soap Emmerdale.

Jack Masters are makers of Christmas jumpers - more than 100,000 have been made in just 10 years and owner Snahal Patel takes viewers behind the scenes to see how the jumpers take shape at the rapidly expanding Leicester factory.

There’s sparkle all around at Festive in Newport factory that makes the tinsel - 1,300 metres of it a minute - enough tinsel to dwarf the tallest building in the world.

More than 10,000 tonnes of sprouts are harvested every year for the Christmas dinners we eat at TH Clements in Lincolnshire and each and every meal is scrutinised to ensure only the best sprouts are selected for supermarket shelves.

Next, we have the gingerbread factory, Original Biscuit Bakers, who have a secret family recipe and make Christmas themed gingerbread men, more than 600,000 of them a year, and each one is iced by hand.

At Caroline Gardner in Putney, Christmas cards are made and they sell more than 100,000 cards a year, and each one is hand folded.