Your York BID 
York Nutcracker Trail
14 November 2024 - 5 January 2025
Your York BID
York Nutcracker Trail
14 November 2024 - 5 January 2025
York BID have partnered with local artist MarcoLooks to celebrate togetherness and community with this year's internationally inspired Nutcracker Trail.
This year's theme, Christmas Around the World, celebrates the unique and diverse communities that make up York.
Find all 10 countries and use the clues painted on each one to work out which country is represented. Pick up a map from the Visitor Information Centre on Parliament Street to write your answers on, then submit your entry at the Visitor Information Centre or post it into Santa’s Post Box in Museum Gardens for your chance to win a £250 York Gift Card!
About the designs
To create the designs, York BID and MarcoLooks have worked alongside a local community group at Our City Hub. The Hub works with newly arrived migrants and refugees to access the resources they need to thrive in York and feel connected to their community. Inspired by their suggestions, each Nutcracker design is painted in the colour of its country’s flag and celebrates some of its most well-known landmarks.
We’d like to say a huge thank you to Bianca Vartic (Cultural Integration and Partnerships Manager) and the Our City Hub project team, volunteers, and community groups for their involvement. To find out more about their activities in the York area, please visit Our City Hub on Facebook or Instagram.
With the help of the RNIB's transcriptions team, every MarcoLooks has added braille to the collar of every Nutcracker (as seen in the photo on the left), sharing which country is being celebrated.
As an artist with a visual impairment, MarcoLooks wanted to offer something to help people living with visual impairments to engage with the trail.
About the artist
Marc Godfrey-Murphy set us his illustration business, MarcoLooks back in 2018. Before that, he worked as an animator for Cbeebies. (you may have seen his work on shows like Numberblocks or Tree Fu Tom). Now Marc creates his own work; quirky illustrations of punny animals to make people laugh, illustrations of York and cheeky birthday cards to pass some joy to a friend or family. He prints his own coasters and colourful mugs in his York studio and most importantly, everything pops in bright and happy colour palettes.
As well as illustration, he also works part-time as an animation tutor with an online animation school; as a mentor to fledgling artists and makers who want to earn money from their creative practice; and part-time as a graphic designer for a local school’s trust.
You can find his online shop at http://www.marcolooks.com, his illustration portfolio at http://www.marcgodfrey.com, and you can find him across all social platforms as @marcolooks.
Design your own Nutcracker
Download a Nutcracker template here and get creative with colouring your own design.
Submit your design at info@theyorkbid.com, Santa's Post Box in York Museum Gardens, or the Visitor Information Centre on Parliament Street for your chance to see your design come to life in the York Nutcracker Trail 2025!
Gift Card Competition T&Cs
Gift card winner will be drawn at random by 20th January 2025. Only entries with 10 correct answers and valid contact information will be accepted. If contact cannot be made within 7 days, another winner will be drawn.
Photography Competition T&Cs
Submit your best Nutcracker and Winter Lights photographs by tagging us on social media (@the_york_bid) or email info@theyorkbid.com for the chance to be reshared on our socials.
Entrants must be 18 or older. By submitting a photograph to the competition, the entrant agrees to grant York BID full rights to use any submitted photographs in digital and printed material without any further compensation to the entrant, including but not limited to social media, digital, brochures, and advertisements.
