Father Christmas Refuses Furlough!

A 1,400-year-old castle has vowed to save Christmas by putting Father Christmas through a gruelling crash-course on Zoom training.

Putting Dasher, Prancer, Vixen and the other reindeers on furlough, the 1,749-year-old Santa Claus said he was determined not to let a pandemic risk his job, or get in the way of his duties on the run up to the big day.

Father Christmas said: “If a castle as old as Bamburgh can get with the times on Zoom, so can I. I’ve not taken a year off in over a thousand years. This pandemic is just a blip in the general scheme of things. I’d like to reassure all children that the spirit of Christmas will not be jeopardised. Not on my watch!”

Bamburgh Castle is a favourite retreat of Santa Claus in his summer holidays.

Christmas 2020 was set to be the first time Mr Claus has hosted his Christmas Kingdom experience from his specially built, and rather enchanting, workshop in the castle’s Victorian stables.

Bamburgh Castle Christmas coordinator Karen Larkin said: “We were due to start the castle’s first ever personalised Father Christmas experiences with children from November 21. With the nation about to go into lockdown again, we thought we’d have no option but to cancel Christmas, leaving boys and girls disappointed. But Father Christmas has saved the day, coming to Bamburgh to get to grips with technology so he will still be able to connect with children around the world from the castle walls.”

The magic of Christmas will be zoomed directly into homes with incredible virtual one-to-one meetings with Mr Claus.

Karen added: “It will make the experience even more unique and using technology will allow us to reach out Bamburgh Castle’s magic to even more people including those who may be shielding, so we can still share some Christmas joy and help lift people’s spirits in these difficult times.”

As well as a virtual personalised meeting with Father Christmas, children will magically receive a special gilded Bamburgh coin and a bag of reindeer moss to feed Santa’s reindeer who will be visiting over Christmas once lockdown restrictions are lifted.

The Castle plans to reopen their doors following the lifting of lockdown restrictions from December 2nd, when children can book traditional Father Christmas experiences in person – social distanced of course. Father Christmas will be joined by a herd of reindeer who will help to nibble down the castle’s ancient lawns in the run up to Christmas Day.

Mr Claus added that he had no plans to join Twitter.

For more information about Bamburgh Castle’s virtual Father Christmas experiences visit www.bamburghcastle.com

Images courtesy of Bamburgh Castle