It’s only a door, to begin with. There’s no doubt whatever about that. But the more you look, the more you’re drawn in. It’s a brightly coloured, simple opening to everything.
Since 2013 we’ve run the annual competition to have under-13s design one of The Big Issue Christmas covers. And each year the response knocks us sideways. It starts as a small trickle of envelopes and then becomes a glorious paper tsunami.
Each of the 1,100-plus entries from right across Britain this year has been lovingly crafted, with colouring pens and glitter and pencils and bits of felt and boundless, unquenchable imagination and enthusiasm.
Increasingly letters arrive from teachers and youth leaders explaining how the creation became a class activity that sparked debate about the realities of Christmas for people who go without. To choose one is almost impossible. Not just because it feels unfair, but because the ideas on the page are so good.
This year we were joined on the judging panel by Anna Bassi, the peerless editor of The Week Junior, and by incredible creator of new worlds, celebrated author Cressida Cowell. There was a simple brief. We asked that entries touch on the theme of Welcome, wherever that took the designs.
And it brought us right to the door of nine-year-old Lucy Norris. A bright door that offers simple relief – where the homeless are welcome; where the homeless become homed.
