Window No. 8
When I was little, we used to visit Santa's Grotto at the local Co-op in York. The Co-op was spread out over the ground floor but the grotto was upstairs. I remember the colour blue predominantly in the decorations. After queueing for a while, you'd take your seat on Santa's sleigh which was actually a painted hardboard frame surrounding a number of benches. I remember there being reindeers at the head of the sleigh but I can't recall if these were actual reindeer figures or just painted images. The walls in front, at the sides and behind the sleigh were on some kind of roller system. As the sleigh 'set off', the rollers began to move. The reindeers galloped. Magical, snowy scenes reeled past the sleigh and then we took off into a glittery, night sky, my heart 'taking off' too with the excitement of it all. There was tinkling, festive music and for what seemed like a perfect moment, we flew in our sleigh, breath held tightly, eyes wide. When the ...