AROUND TOWN MEETS
Christmas Father meets
He might have left his famous red suit at ho-ho-home, but his joyous spirit and generous demeanour personify the true meaning of Christmas in every way.
Whether you know him as Santa Claus, St Nicholas or even Kris Kringle, there can only be one person we’re talking about – the legend that is Father Christmas. Now, you may be wondering how we came about meeting this VIPapa here in little old South Yorkshire, but we have it on good authority that when they say Santa Claus is coming to town, they really do, in fact, mean Rotherham.
Having travelled the earth for centuries gone by, despite the warmer climates and exotic cities elsewhere, Father Christmas has struck up an endearing connection with the people of Rotherham since he first experienced it outside of his regular Christmas Eve dash over 40 years ago.
Back in 1976, the teachers at a Rotherham primary school sent
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an SOS to the North Pole to see if Father Christmas could spare an hour in his busy pre-Christmas schedule to come and say hello to all the boys and girls who had been especially well behaved at school that year.
“People often assume that I live at the North Pole but there
It’s brilliant as I get to meet lots of people who would usually be asleep when I visit on Christmas Eve.
is actually nothing there other than ice and snow so it would be impossible to survive. Luckily, Frosty redirects all the many letters that find their way there to my real address at Lapland,” Father Christmas says. Since that very first visit, he
loved Rotherham so much that he decided to make an annual visit to catch up with the teachers and find out if the pupils had kept up their good work each year so as to stay on the Nice List.
Wanting to see as many happy faces as possible, he visits numerous schools in the area as well as Christmas fairs and community groups.
“It’s brilliant as I get to meet lots of people who would usually be asleep when I visit on Christmas Eve. I love to listen to every child’s story and hear what they’ve been up to all year.
“However, my wife does suffer slightly as I don’t see her properly from November onwards. This year, the schools don’t finish until the 22nd so I won’t have my usual three to four days to rest before flying out on Christmas Eve.”
Rows of inquisitive children gaze adoringly up from their desks as the illusion of the festive fable
comes to life in their
With twinkly blue eyes, rosy, dimpled cheeks, and a beard on his chin as white as the snow, there is no mistaking our current interviewee as he strides merrily through the door.
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