SANTA Claus is coming to town again this Christmas - after a York church stepped into the breach and decided to organise a great grotto.

Until the mid-1990s, children used to come to York from miles around to visit Father Christmas in one of the best grottos in the country at the Co-op's Victoria House department store. Youngsters sat on a sleigh which appeared to be flying through the sky.

But since the store closed down, the city has struggled to lay on the festive treat, although the Evening Press stepped in one year by organising a grotto on the Theatre Royal patio, and another was successfully held for a couple of years in St Sampson's Square.

Now the Rock Church, in Priory Street, off Micklegate, is coming to the rescue of children this Christmas by setting up a "high quality grotto" in the "Rock-plex centre" at the back of the church, which will be open to children from across the area.

News of the grotto comes only a day after it was announced that an ice skating rink is to be opened this Christmas in the Eye of York.

Grotto organiser Maggie Farrimond said children would go down a white tunnel, past a large polar bear, penguins and sea lions to get to Father Christmas, who will be sitting in a sleigh with two life-sized reindeer.

"It will be lit like a winter wonderland. And children will get high-quality gifts, not the sort of tacky things they sometimes get when they visit Father Christmas," she said.

"We checked out whether we could buy the equipment from the old grotto at the Co-op, but it wasn't available," she said.

She hoped York firefighters would be able to get Santa down from the church roof with their turntable ladder to launch the grotto on the evening of Thursday, December 1.

"The grotto will be open from 4.30pm until 8pm on that evening, and from 10 am until 4pm on three Saturdays in December, the 3rd, the 10th and the 17th, and also on Monday the 19th, Tuesday the 20th and Wednesday the 21st."

Admission will be £4.50 per child, with the church hoping simply to cover costs over the period.

Meanwhile, City of York Council has revealed that a post box for letters to Father Christmas will be sited near the Christmas tree in St Helen's Square from around November 18, to coincide with the Children's Fayre, in Parliament Street.

"Father Christmas will be calling by from time to time to collect his mail and all letters will receive a reply, providing a contact address is included," said a spokeswoman.

"Details of all of the various Christmas attractions can be found in the Yuletide York guide, which will be available in all Tourist Information Centres, libraries and other outlets in the near future."

Updated: 10:15 Friday, November 04, 2005