Father Christmas isn’t waiting until 25 December to come to Poole and Hamworthy – he will be in the area on Monday 13 December.

Local firefighters will be again chaperoning him through the local community, delivering fire safety advice and collecting charitable donations for two charities as part of their popular Santa’s Fire Sleigh.

The crew will begin their journey at 5.45pm, escorting Santa through the streets of the Waterloo estate in Poole. They will then move to Turlin Moor in Hamworthy, starting there at around 6.45pm. Their progress can be followed on the Poole fire station Twitter and Facebook pages.

Raising money for the Fire Fighters Charity and Forest Holme Hospice, Santa will be supported by on-call firefighters from both Poole and Hamworthy fire stations.

Ian Crabb, on-call section commander for Poole, said: “We were all really disappointed that the pandemic stopped us from going out in 2020, so it’s great that we can take Santa through our local neighbourhood again this year. It gives us a great opportunity to engage with our community, spread some festive cheer, raise some money for two great causes, and deliver our fire safety messages.”