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SUSPICIOUS CHARACTER OBSERVED IN FARRINGDON - Updated Dec 28th 2005

After reports reached the Biz nerve centre that a suspicious character was seen lurking in the vicinity of Hall and Crows lanes, your reporter was presented with a selection of photographs of an ancient gentlemen, clad in a red cloak, attempting to gain entrance to a local hostelry.
Bearing in mind the time of year it was soon apparent the aforementioned was none other than Santa Claus paying his regular pre-Christmas visit to the Rose and Crown, accompanied by the repeated chorus of jingle bells from the children waiting to greet him.

Santa is extremely ancient and he seems to have shrunk a little since his last visit. When consulted on this matter he informed your reporter he had been on a keep fit regime since last year, to lighten the load on the sledge in an effort to reduce the energy required from Prancer, Dancer and the rest of the reindeer and therefore reduce the carbon footprint of his Christmas Eve activities.

First in the line to greet Santa was one of his biggest fans who told him how she had been singing Jingle Bells so he would know where to land. Not all of Santa's visitors were quite so enthusiastic.

This young lady knew exactly what she wanted for Christmas so Santa didn't need to check his delivery notes in this instance which was just as well as his glasses were now steaming up behind the beard.

This lad was rather more easy going and was quite happy with anything Santa could find in the sledge on Christmas eve. By now Santa had mislaid two letters and was only rescued by the ever efficient Elves who recovered the misplaced paperwork from deeper recesses of his beard.

The Elves weren't the only people interested in Santa's whiskers, the younger element were (very wisely in my opinion) reluctant to get too close to Santa but were fascinated by this voluminous beard and moustache.

Poor old Santa was confused completely by the unexpected appearance of an extra Elf but the confusion was rapidly corrected by the young person underneath the hat, who managed to get Santa back on course without a prolonged explanation. With Santa in rapt attention the supplementary elf listed his requirements which were duly noted for future reference by the bearded old gent.

Of course the old fool then became over confident and his next customer duly indicated what he thought of being left in the lap of a bloke with more whiskers than a walrus.Rapidly rescued by this mother the little chap was soon placated and Santa will make sure this one is fast asleep when he visits on Christmas Eve.

Elf Stephanie was on hand to restore order and Santa was soon deep in conversation with a much more appreciative audience discussing the merits of various gift options and the more technical problems involved in chimney access and rooftop landing techniques.

This little chap was not at all upset by the close proximity of all those whiskers, undoubtedly the youngest visitor to actually enjoy a close encounter with Father Christmas while his brother concentrated on the goodies.

Deep concentration here as Santa's goodies are closely inspected by this perceptive young lady, suggesting that she will have a good eye for a bargain in the years to come.

One perceptive visitor decided that Santa was best ignored completely and took appropriate action.

 

	Santa was now having trouble keeping up with the demand as his fans arrived in ones, twos . .
	. .and threes. although I'm not sure the ancient old fellow isn't dozing off behind this trio on the right.
Santa very soon woke up when the more mature young ladies arrived on his lap and once again I have to apologise for what follows and I only hope Mrs Claus doesn't see these pictures with Santa promising do deliver various exotic motor cars and exotic presents in the hope of enticing innocent youg ladies to sit on his lap.

I'm afraid things got completely out of hand when this young lady arrived, Santa's Ho Ho Hos were getting a trifle beyond the bounds of good taste.

Is nobody safe, what the other half is going to say about this I dread to think. It's probably just as well that we have no record of the words Santa was whispering in her ear.

This is the final straw, his excuse is that they were his two assistants on the night and he was merely expressing his gratitude.

Shortly afterwards Santa bid his farewell to the children and flew off to prepare for his marathon flight across countless chimney tops on Christmas Eve.

Special thanks to Reg who was behind the camera for the evening.

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