Bearing gifts for everyone, he and his wife, Mrs Claus, came in by sleigh with his elves and surprised the children of Sandy Lane Hotel & Resort employees and their specially invited guests from children's homes on Saturday afternoon.

Gail Springer, human resources manager for the St James luxury hotel, said her staff worked extremely hard and spent a lot of time away from their families, so this was their way of bringing everyone together.

"This is to spread some Christmas cheer and make everybody happy including our special guests. We have close to 300 children and every child under the age of 11 received a gift," said Springer.

She said this was the seventh year for their children's Christmas programme starting from when the hotel reopened in 2001.

"Every child will have fun. Our staff from our Treehouse Club will come share some of the games that we usually have with the guests. We will also have creative games specifically for boys and girls," she said at the Bennetts Pavilion of the Sandy Lane Hotel and Resort. (TM)