I went to Santa School in London and spoke to Father Christmas

Ministry of Fun have been teaching actors to master the role of Santa ahead of the upcoming festive season. We spoke to Father Christmas himself.

Transcript

00:00 Well, we're here for the Ministry Fund Santa School, which is an annual Santa School that

00:08 we hold where we train performers in the art of portraying Father Christmas, which is obviously

00:14 a very important role, because then only if they pass the training and are deemed good

00:22 enough will they go out and meet children, because we take it very seriously, because

00:26 every child that meets Father Christmas, as far as that child is concerned, is meeting

00:30 the real Father Christmas. So there's a huge responsibility that they have. So we train

00:35 them in the art of being magical and warm and wonderful and give them lots of do's and

00:40 don'ts of how to do that effectively and make it a really special encounter. The vast majority

00:47 have a performance background, which is sort of inevitable. There's actors, lots of actors,

00:53 who find that this is a role that they haven't played before and fancy playing, because it

00:57 really is a very rewarding role, because you're getting to portray somebody that people already

01:04 love but also means a huge amount to them, so the stakes are high, because you're meeting

01:08 a child or children who are in front of their hero, so you've got that importance that you

01:15 don't spoil that, and if anything, you just enhance it and make it grow and make that

01:21 experience one that they'll remember forever.

01:24 This year will be 20 years. I absolutely love it, that's why I keep coming back every single

01:31 year. It's the highlight of the year for me. The best thing about it is that every single

01:37 family that you see and every single child that you see is an individual experience just

01:41 for them. Sometimes for actors, if you do a show in front of lots of people, you have

01:46 to do one set thing, whereas when you are Father Christmas, you can just be whatever

01:52 they want you to be and how they want you to be. So if you've got little ones, you

01:56 can be absolutely magical. If you've got slightly older ones, you can be a bit more fun. If,

02:02 as happens quite a lot, you get ones in their late teens or twenties that get dragged in

02:07 by mum and dad because they've done it every year for 15 years, you can have lots of fun

02:11 with the whole family.

02:12 I don't think it's ever been difficult. Even during Covid, we did some on Zoom, which in

02:18 a way was quite freeing because the children didn't have to go out and the parents didn't

02:24 have to find parking and go and see Father Christmas. You were in their house, so you'd

02:28 have the call and the children were showing you their pets and their garden and their

02:32 football.

02:33 Lastly, obviously a busy couple of months for you now, but what does Santa do for the

02:37 rest of the year?

02:39 Well, when you have as many mince pies as I do on Christmas Eve, it takes a while to

02:43 sleep it off, I'll be honest. Normally the Easter Bunny gives me a shout about April

02:48 and you get up and have a bit of a lie down. But you have a little bit of a relax, but

02:54 by the time it gets back to December again, you're itching to get back in the sleigh

03:00 and get back and see the children again. You're always looking forward to it.

03:02 [BLANK_AUDIO]