Santa steams into village in Prickwillow phone box makeover

Villagers in Prickwillow have "blinged up" the phone box every year since 2010

A disused red phone box has been transformed as part of an annual bid to bring some festive cheer to a village.

The defunct kiosk in Prickwillow, near Ely, Cambridgeshire, has become a steam train, with a massive Santa head and fur hat for the cab.

In recent years, the box on Main Street has been decorated as a bauble, a present, a chimney pot and a giant sweet by local artists.

Designer Cary Outis said it would "put a little whimsy on the high street".

Members of the Ouse Life Drawing Group have "blinged up" the box since it was bought for the village in 2010.

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Mr Outis said it took a few days - and some upcycling - to put the festive locomotive together

"A couple of people said it would be a pity to throw away last year's effort, so I had to come up with a second use for Santa," he said.

"The challenge always is how to use the [phone] box itself - it's a little forbidding in itself, but limitation forces creativity."

Last year the phone box became Father Christmas 2018

In previous years, the phone box has been a present, sweet and bauble

The Santa train was built with "cheap plywood and batten, acrylic paint and some ridiculously cheap shiny red fabric and fluff", he added.

"Putting a little whimsy on a high street is a mildly subversive act - I just hope nobody crashes their car rubbernecking!"