Big penguin adorns village phone box for Christmas

The emperor penguin is made from fabric with wooden supports

An old phone box has been turned into a giant penguin, in what has become an annual Christmas tradition in a Fenland village.

The bright red box in Prickwillow has been "blinged up" for the festive season since 2011, after the Cambridgeshire village bought it from BT for £1.

Members of the Ouse Life Drawing Group have taken on the "blinging" task, but most years local artist and sculptor Cary Outis has created the designs, which have included Santas, reindeer, a giant Christmas gift and a sleigh stuck down a chimney.

This year's enormous penguin took him about three days to sew, and is made from fabric with wooden supports.

The penguin decoration has been well-received in the village

Artist Cary Outis said an idea for the annual design usually "pops into his head"

"Every year I think I'm running out of ideas, and then something pops into my head," said Mr Outis.

The penguin, with its fabric, stuffing and supports was quite a challenge, he admitted.

"I had to work out how to sew the head on to the shoulders and to be honest, I'm not very good at sewing."

The penguin is holding a sign that reads: "I'm so confused."

Mr Outis said: "The world seems like it's turned a bit upside down at the moment - so I wrote that, as our penguin is in the northern hemisphere instead of the southern - where it belongs.

"But people can interpret it as they like and take it as a flippant comment if they want to."

The penguin is the latest in a long line of phone box artworks to grace the Fenland village

Decorating the box has become an annual tradition, delighting villagers and visitors.

Since the penguin took up residence on Tuesday, Mr Outis said he had received "lots of very nice" comments and local children were "laughing out loud" when they saw it.