Plastic penguins, grotty grottos and grumpy elves: it’s not easy being a Santa impersonator | Alec Powell

The pandemic has taken a toll on the festive season, and now many of my fellow Father Christmases are struggling

Father Christmas is a very real person to so many children. Obviously with Santa being so occupied at this time of year, many impersonators go out to entertain and help with all of the excitement leading up to Christmas. I've just finished a 27-show run as a Father Christmas impersonator, at a four-day event run by Dudley metropolitan borough council. The council team presented an outdoor, big-screen Father Christmas experience. With the trees and the hall expertly illuminated and the audience sitting in marquees with two walls taken out, children watched a short story concluding with its characters finding a magic portal". The screen blitzed and Father Christmas appeared.

Not all Father Christmas gigs are like this - and I've been doing them for 18 years. One year, I worked in a grotto that was actually more grotty": a garden shed plonked in the middle of an indoor shopping centre, with some plastic gnomes and penguins dotted around it. A funless elf wheeled the children through at a rate of knots. The hours were long and the pay was poor. Most of the children were too young to understand what was happening; the parents were eager only for that picture with Santa, never mind that their child was bawling their head off. Having an argument in your allocated two minutes is not a very festive option. As with any close contact with children, you need to make sure your reflexes are quick to save your beard. Unless you are a real-beard Santa" - then it just hurts.

Alec Powell is a children's entertainer, magician and Father Christmas impersonator