SCHOOLCHILDREN are sharing their messages of hope for the world by writing them on Christmas decorations hanging in Oxford Town Hall.

Pupils from two city primary schools – St Ebbe’s, in Whitehouse Road, and West Oxford, in Ferry Hinksey Road – made the baubles bearing their festive wishes for Santa’s grotto.

City council staff said hundreds of people would have the chance to read the message in the run-up to Christmas.

And, as a thank you, Oxford City Council invited the children involved to a storytelling session week where they met Father Christmas, Mother Christmas and their elves.

West Oxford pupil Isla Roland, aged five, made a decoration and wished that more people would help each other.

She said: “It is important for everybody to be kind to everybody else all the time.

“We should all be nice.”

St Ebbe’s pupil Frank Nash, 10, said: “I used my Christmas wish to ask that there be no wars anywhere in the world, which I think is very important.

“It was good fun to come to the town hall today and meet Santa.”

Classmate Farzala Haque said: “I want there to be new homes for all homeless people because everybody needs somewhere to live.”

Friend Sarah Butland, 11, said she hoped the new year would bring world peace.

Banbury town crier Anthony Church was on hand to marshal the pupils as they sang a selection of festive songs last Wednesday.

Town hall manager Lidia Pocock said: “The grotto is decorated beautifully so that children can enjoy their visit to Santa.

“We are delighted with the response from schools.

“It has been a real pleasure to see the children enjoying story-time with Santa. The children have really taken time in thinking about some lovely wishes for the world. Visitors to the grotto are very complimentary about the children’s sentiments.”

The grotto in the Town Hall will be open from 10am to 4pm from Wednesday until Thursday, December 23.

At the grotto, children can visit Santa and take home a present, and can also choose to join a story telling session or take part in a creative workshop.

People can pay tribute to their loved ones, while helping those suffering with cancer, by hanging a message on one of three Macmillan Cancer Support Trees of Thought appeal at Oxford Castle’s Winter Wonderland