BUDDING artists who want to celebrate the festive season are being encouraged to take part in a competition to design a Christmas card for the police.

The competition has been launched by South Yorkshire Police and is open to anyone aged 12 years old and under.

Designs should be submitted on A4 paper and entrants must have parental permission to enter the competition.

A spokesperson for the force said: “We are pleased to launch our annual Christmas card competition again and we are looking for a member of our community to design our force Christmas card.

“Once we have all of your submissions our Chief Constable will choose her top four designs.

“We’ll then publish the finalists on our SYP Facebook page for you to vote for our winner, who will receive a printed copy of their design as well as a visit from our horses at their school.”

To enter, send your design, along with the artist's name, age, address and parent's contact number to corporatecomms@southyorks.pnn.police.uk.

Entries close on December 9.