The Snow Queen and a polar bear have won the hearts of Bury St Edmunds shoppers this Christmas who’ve voted a home and gift shop as winner of the town’s annual most festive shop window prize. Users of the Our Bury St Edmunds LoyalFree app chose LOFT & SPIRES at 61 Cornhill as this year’s winner with runners up awards going to Baileys 2 Bistro and Hayward Moon property lawyers, both in Whiting Street.
The winning window had been planned since February when the five staff at LOFT & SPIRES started to develop ideas about how to excite children at Christmas and add light and sparkle to darker winter days. Work on the display started in the summer.
Romy Abraham who owns the shop said: “This has been a team effort but Lizzy and Alice worked especially hard on the castle and the Snow Queen’s dress, hair and make-up. Our polar bear was made from recycled packaging received in the shop including paper, cardboard and bubble wrap and the sleigh was from a previous window but given a complete makeover for this year.
“This window has been one of the hardest and most time consuming the team has embarked on but recycling and upcycling has made it the most satisfying to make. I am so thrilled for the team that shoppers and visitors to the town have voted it the winner and thank everyone who took the time to do so.”
The long-running competition for shops and businesses is organised by the Business Improvement District (BID) organisation Our Bury St Edmunds. Mike Kirkham from the BID commented: “We launched a trail on the LoyalFree app featuring all the windows in the competition and during the two weeks that voting was open it was viewed around 500 times. The businesses taking part had all worked very hard and as well as our winner and two runners up there were two others, Javelin and Buy The Light, who were extremely close and deserve to be commended.
“The LOFT & SPIRES staff are so creative with their Christmas designs and this window is a joy to look at – but the standard has been extremely high across the whole town again and we appreciate the efforts of all our businesses to try to bring some festive cheer to the town centre at the end of another very challenging year.”
LOFT & SPIRES, which has now won the annual competition for four of the last five years, will hold the Our Bury St Edmunds Shield for the next 12 months. It was presented by the Mayor of Bury St Edmunds, Town Councillor Peter Thompson. Three users of the LoyalFree app who voted for the winning business and runners up will also receive prizes of Our Bury St Edmunds Gift Cards at a later date.