A BIT of festive cheer came to York's historic Mansion House as the city's lord mayor welcomed the finalists from the civic Christmas card competition.

Two winners from each of the schools who took part in the contest joined Cllr Ian Gillies and and the Sheriff, John Kenny, for afternoon tea and the overall winner was announced, this year as nine-year-old Charlie Thornton, from St Wilfrid’s RC Primary School.

Now Charlie's cards, which shows Father Christmas on his sleigh crossing the moon over the top of York Minster, will be sent out to civic dignitaries across the country, to overseas contacts as well as people in the local community.

As part of his prize, Charlie also travelled back to school after the event in the official civic limousine, DN1, with the Lord Mayor.

Each entrant contributed £1 to the civic charities to submit their design, and all the funds raised will now go to York Teaching Hospital Charity (YTHC) and York Against Cancer which look to improve patient care across the city.

The competition entries were judged by Jon Stonehouse, director of children’s services, education and skills at City of York Council, Janet Barnes, the chief executive of York Museums Trust and Dianne Willcocks, the former Vice Chancellor of York St John University.

Cllr Gillies said: “I am grateful to all entrants in this competition and am sure it was a tough decision for the panel to make due to the high quality of the designs.

"It was great to welcome them to the historic Mansion House and hopefully they enjoyed the experience.”