"AA puts magic back into Santa's sleigh"

I was part of the team that organised the Buckden Christmas Fair to raise money for Buckden pre-school in Cambridgeshire. The event took place this week on Saturday 23rd November and one of the highlights was a visit from Santa Claus himself - well, he was actually a member of the Huntingdon Round Table but we didn't tell the children that of course, bless them.

Anyway, we had the grand opening and as planned Santa turned up in his sleigh, which was being pulled by a van. He then went into his grotto to hand out presents to the children. At the end of the fair Santa got back into his sleigh ready to 'fly' off. Except he didn't. In fact he didn't move an inch because the van had broken down.

My five-year-old daughter turned to me and said 'The reindeer are magical mummy, so why can't they move the sleigh?'. Thinking on my feet, so as not to break the spell, I told her that they were only magical on Christmas Eve.

When the van driver informed us that the van was going nowhere, Santa went back into the grotto and saw a few more children. In the meantime The Round Table phoned the AA. At first the AA thought it was a joke, but when it was explained to them that it was the van pulling Santa's sleigh that had broken down they came out straightaway. Apparently it was a flat battery, which is quite common when the weather starts to get colder. Hopefully, the real Santa won't have the same problem. Lol.

Vikki Brooks