The Sisterland group with the pop-up vagina                       [Saffy Paget / @patheticgirl63]

MRS Santa Claus had finally had enough of doing all the work at Christmas and getting none of the credit – and so she walked out.

At least, that’s the story the feminist collective Sisterland have come up with to explain an enormous pop-up vagina in a shopfront in York Way, launched last weekend as “a galactic journey through the mouth of the vulva”.

Described as a “glittering festive fanny” that anyone is welcome to visit (including sessions with children, if they are very supervised), the idea is “tongue in cheek” but with a serious message about female empowerment beneath.

Sisterland’s Elli Cartwright said: “We started just joking around and we thought, imagine if Mrs Santa Claus got fed-up with making all the cookies, feeding the reindeer, supervising the workshop, and left the North Pole, arrived at King’s Cross Station, sort of staggered up York Way and ended up in a bedsit here.

“We imagined her saying, ‘I want a grotto of my own – I’m fed up being a sidekick.’ And what would she build? We thought, obviously, she’ll build an enormous vagina, to celebrate the site of creation and pleasure – her own rebirth.”

Once past the vulval opening, attendees will be invited to “part the cervical entrance, and enter the chamber” where soothing “heartbeat meets Tibetan temple” music plays rhythmically.

Elli Cartwright and Jo Yurky of the Sisterland group at the cervical opening

“This will be a moment to reflect and have a sort of spiritual meeting with yourself,” said Ms Cartwright, describing how an enormous clitoris will dangle from the ceiling as guests look at themselves in a mirror.

“The point is to reflect on self-love and nurturing yourself, at a time of year when women spend a lot of time caring for others,” she added.

The non-traditional experience will still feature a Mrs Claus – who has renamed herself Father Butchmas – and attendees can pose for a Chosen Family Portrait and chow down on mince pussy pies.

They will be invited to write alternative letters to Santa and draw labial imagery.

The giant vulva was made using chicken wire and hot-carved polystyrene, while the whole installation took around two weeks to make.

A GoFundMe page has so far raised nearly £2,000, while Sisterland are waiting to hear about bids for funding for long-term projects at the space, which they hope will become a feminist centre.

For both Ms Cartwright and Jo Yurky, her Sisterland partner, A Grotto of Her Own was inspired by their frustrations from living within the patriarchy.

“There is still a system of male domination,” said Ms Yurky, whose uncle used to run a barbershop in the now feminised space, and who hopes entering a giant vagina could possibly lead to a new world order.

“I think the problem is that if being equal to men means women have to turn themselves into men, you have to adopt old traits of competitiveness, aggression, strength, capitalism, speed, and I think actually, if you’re centreing care as your core value in this society, then you come up with a different structure.

“It’s about building a new world where what women contribute is valued,” she added.

The vagina is open on weekends and over the Christmas holidays.