East Preston girl claims card prizes

Olivia, nine, from East Preston, showed Father Christmas, his reindeer and sleigh laden with presents, hitched up to racing driver Fernando Alonso’s Formula 1 car in her entry, “North Pole Position”.

The F1 driver is telling Father Christmas: “We’ll get this done in no time with my car!”

Her card won Olivia, a pupil of East Preston Junior School, first prize in the under-10 age group.

Olivia and her mother, Ann, were treated to afternoon tea at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, where she was presented with her prizes of a Nintendo 3DS console and 10 games by Rachel Barnfield and Esther Woods, from Banco Santander shareholder relations, based in London.

The Christmas Card competition is run annually by the shareholder department and across the three age categories, more than 240 entries were received from the countries where the department operates, including the UK, Spain, USA and Portugal.

The competition entries went through two rounds of voting by visitors to a website and then by an expert artist panel appointed by Santander.