THEY say it's the biggest one in the whole of Oxfordshire.

Thousands of festive greetings, featuring every Christmas scene imaginable – robins, sleigh rides, reindeer and the jolly fat man himself – and raising money for 38 different charities.

What's more, it's not even a permanent shop.

This is Cards for Good Causes, which pops up every November at Oxford Town Hall.

The operation, big enough to make Santa's elves jealous, is staffed entirely be volunteers and boasts to be the largest Christmas card shop in the county.

The 'Mrs Claus' who has been running Cards for Good Causes in Oxfordshire for the past 20 years is Stella Carter.

The Abingdon resident, who first started selling Christmas cards to raise money for the Samaritans in her home town, said: "The difference between us and Jon Lewis is we're bigger.

"We've got the biggest selection of cards in Oxfordshire and we send at least 70p for each pound back to charities.

"We've got lots of cards with Oxford scenes, like the Radcliffe Camera, so there's plenty of local interest, too."

Cards for Good Causes is actually a national network which runs some 300 pop-ups around the country every year, open for between one and 12 weeks.

Oxford just happens to be one of the biggest.

Mrs Carter explained: "It all came together because in the past each charity was selling their own Christmas cards and it needed one person to sell them and one person to do the paper work.

"They decided if 25 major charities got together, you would still only need one person to sell all the cards and one to do the paper work.

"It's a bit like a car show room, with all the products in a row, and you can walk along and browse different cards from different makers."

Every shop in the country has cards from the same basic 25 charities, but some chose to support one or two more.

Mrs Carter, running a serious festive operation, supports an extra 13 charities - a total of 38 organisations from the RNLI and Macmillan Cancer Support to Cancer Research UK and the Stroke Association.

Prices start at £3 for a pack of 10 cards and, says Mrs Carter: "We're very much in line with High Street prices."

This year's grotto popped up on October 23 and runs until the end of the day on Monday, December 18.

The shop is open in the Long Room at the town hall, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4.30pm.