Is Banksy trying to tell us something? New stencil hints at this year’s Christmas theme
Banksy is believed to have struck a second time in two days, offering an insight into his theme for Christmas 2025.
The elusive artist is thought to be behind a stencil that appeared on a wall of a disused tennis court changing rooms in London Fields, Hackney, overnight.
Its majestic antlers are tangled in multicoloured fairy lights hanging from a metal bar attached to the blue wall.
The work appeared 24 hours after two other pieces- confirmed Banksys – of children lying on their backs and pointing up at the sky in Bayswater and near the Centre Point building.
For the last eight years, Banksy has struck in the run-up to Christmas with work that offers some form of social commentary.
The unknown artist is yet to confirm it is his, but the multi-textural fourth-wall-busting nature of the piece is reminiscent of his style.
The characters are pictured in the gutter looking up at the sky in areas known for homeless populations like Tottenham Court Road and Hackney parks.
Centre Point also shares the name of one of London’s biggest homeless charities, seemingly drawing attention to their valuable work.
The pieces show an evolution with the use of mixed media in London Fields hinting that Banksy could strike again before the New Year.
Banksy, who is clearly in the capital, also has a habit of getting busy around the Christmas period.
His ‘Santa’s Ghetto’ ran intermittently between 2002 and 2007 as a temporary, Christmas-only project staged in improvised locations across London, before concluding in Bethlehem.
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One piece saw Jesus Christ being crucified while holding shopping bags.
Another sees a boy appearing to eat snowflakes before it is revealed they are actually ashes from a bin fire.
Banksy has already unveiled a series of nine animal-themed murals across London which was dubbed a ‘Concrete Jungle Safari’.
If indeed the artwork really is a new Banksy piece, it will be the second time the anonymous street artist has struck for Christmas this year.
He has already claimed responsibility for one new speculated Banksy piece that emerged this week.
The artist posted a picture of his sketch on Instagram, which depicts a pair of children lying on the ground in winter gear and pointing up at the sky.
The figures popped up on the side of an abandoned building in Queen’s Mews, Bayswater in west London.
The mural was first spotted on Monday, December 22.
However it was boarded up by workmen just hours after the elusive graffiti artist confirmed he was behind the artwork.
Banky’s Instagram account has not claimed that piece as his own, as has become customary.
What other Banksy works have appeared over Christmas?
Banksy’s Season’s Greetings which depicts a message about the impact of pollution on communities and appeared on the outside of a steelworker’s private garage in Taibach, Port Talbot in 2018.
The figure of the boy is believed to have been replicated in his latest Bayswater stargazing work in Bayswater. Banksy is not known to repeat his characters often.
Banksy’s Mother and Child, unveiled in 2024, shows a woman reminiscent of the Madonna, breastfeeding a baby through a rusty pipe embedded in the wall.
Dirty water appears to trickle from her breast. Without an explanation offered by the artist, experts hypothesised Banksy was drawing attention to scandals in the Catholic Church that lead to the Archbishop of Canterbury to resign.
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