Father Christmas welcomes Conservative at holy places (6)

I believe the answer is:

sancta

'holy places' is the definition.
('sanctum' can be a synonym of 'holy place')

'father christmas welcomes conservative' is the wordplay.
'father christmas' becomes 'santa' (I've seen this before).
'welcomes' means one lot of letters goes inside another (in sense of 'invites in').
'conservative' becomes 'c' (abbreviation commonly used in UK politics).
'santa' enclosing 'c' is 'SANCTA'.

'at' is the link.

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.

Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app