A SHIPLEY boy is hoping for some early festive cheer after making it through to the national final of the Royal Mail’s contest to design the official Christmas stamp.

George Dunbar, eight, is one of 24 contenders in the final of the competition, looking to impress head judge Prince Charles and then the Queen, after more than 200,000 children entered.

George, a pupil at Wycliffe CE Primary School, Saltaire Road, Shipley, was crowned the winner in the four to seven years category for the Yorkshire and Humber.

Now George, who was seven when he entered the competition, is one of 12 finalists in this age range.

The finalists are made up of winners from schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and nine regions across England. The two lucky winners, one from each of the age categories, will see their stamp designs made into one of the first or second class Christmas stamps this year.

His design features a snowman under the competition’s theme; ‘What does the Christmas season mean to you?’.

George has already won £500 worth of High Street vouchers for his family and £500 for his school.

His classmate Maja Krynska, also eight, also made it through to the regional final.

Their art teacher, Karen Palmer, selected 40 designs completed by the school’s creative children, for this year’s competition.

These were taken from designs by all 380 children at the school for its Christmas card competition held last October.

She said: “George has a very good chance of winning.

“I just hope that Prince Charles likes snowmen.

“George has done it to look like he is on the ground looking up at the snowman. It’s a bit quirky.

“We are just very pleased to have had two area finalists from the school. It is really nice that George has made the final.”

George’s mother, Jenny Dunbar, 37, said she was proud of her son for getting to the final.

She said: “To get this far in the competition is brilliant.

“George wants to be an artist when he’s older.

“He is more excited about getting his school money from the prize than anything else.

“I really hope he can win.”

The two overall winners will be announced at the end of next month. They will receive £1,000 in vouchers for the winners’ family and £1,000 for the school.

The competition was open for UK primary schools.

It will be only the fourth time in Royal Mail’s 500-year history that children’s designs have been used on Christmas stamps in the UK. The others were in 1966, 1981 and 2013, when there were 240,000 entries.