A festive window display featuring the Snow Queen and a polar bear has won the hearts of Bury St Edmunds shoppers.

LOFT & SPIRES in the Cornhill has been crowned this year's winner of the Christmas shop window competition, which is organised by Our Bury St Edmunds, the town's BID [Business Improvement District] group.

Users of the Our Bury St Edmunds LoyalFree app chose the gift shop LOFT & SPIRES, 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 and 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.”

Mike Kirkham, from the BID, said: “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."

LOFT & SPIRES has now won the annual competition for four of the last five years.

The Our Bury St Edmunds Shield was presented by the Mayor of Bury St Edmunds, Peter Thompson.