What is it like being Santa? Adored by children and having to only work a few days each year...

Bournemouth Echo journalist Julie Magie decided find out by swapping the cosy confines of the newsroom for what she hoped would be an afternoon tucked up in a cosy grotto, sipping sherry and scoffing mince pies in a local Asda store.

She said: "After all, I possessed most of the qualities store bosses were searching for. At a push, I could still squeeze down chimneys, was good with reindeer (well I think I would be if I ever had the chance to meet one), enjoy giving presents and like children (other people's, I hasten to add).

However she soon discovered that the job of Father Christmas, or in her case Mother Christmas, was't all she had hoped for.

She said: "The first hurdle was dressing up in a Santa costume provided by Asda and discovering Father Christmas wears only one size of clothes - enormous.

"My fur-trimmed red trousers were literally tripping me up as I stumbled through the store, looking more like Wee Willy Winkie than St Nicholas."

To help guide Julie through her festive task was Asda's regular 'Mother Christmas', Jenny Catmull, who showed Julie to her grotto, which - much to her disappointment - was positioned in the store's draughty main entrance.

Soon children were arriving with their mums and dads, stepping into Julie's 'grotto' clutching £1 tickets purchased from the checkout tills.

However she soon began to worry that she wasn't having the desired effect.

She said: "Maybe the double shock of seeing how Father Christmas had undergone a sex change operation and spoke with an Irish accent put them off.

"But, after a few seconds and a hastily snatched gift, they fled from the grotto to the safety of their parents' arms."

And so Julie was happy when the time came to swop her Santa costume for her suit and return to the other busy little elves at the Echo...

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