EXCITABLE kids demanding their parents take them north to meet Father Christmas this year will be bitterly disappointed to find that jolly old Saint Nick resides somewhat closer to home.

For it transpires that the bringer of Christmas cheer lives not in Lapland but in Gorse Hill.

And when he’s not shuffling down chimneys or feeding carrots to Rudolph, he goes by the name of John Wyatt.

John, 73, has been playing the part of Santa Claus for around half a decade, and he absolutely loves it.

He found his Christmas calling in the first instance when he donned the famous red and white uniform to bring smiles to the faces of his grandchildren, and from that moment it was clear he had a knack for it.

“I would go to see the family dressed as Santa on Christmas day, and it all stemmed from there really,” said a clearly good-natured John.

His celebrity then heightened when he was asked to entertain pupils at Mountford Manor Primary School in Walcot four years ago.

“Mountford needed a Father Christmas, and I thought ‘why not’ – it will be great fun to do.

“From there I would be invited to many different schools, interrupting assemblies to the delight of the children.”

So believable is he as the jolly old man of Christmas that his services have been requested as far away as Calne, where later this month he will be entertaining the little ones at a mother and toddler group.

So just what is it exactly that the Gorse Hill man loves about playing one of the world’s best-loved characters?

“It’s wonderful to see the look on the children’s faces,” he said. “I love Christmas anyway, and it feels good to be able to make it special for others.

“I look forward to it every year and I’m sure I’ll be doing it for a while yet.”

Comically, driving his car around Swindon dressed as Santa has led to a few memorable encounters.

“It’s great fun when I drive around in the costume. The police wave as I go past, and when I get out the car, people say: ‘Look, it’s Santa’.”

One year, John’s identity was almost revealed - by his own grandchildren nonetheless.

He said: “My grand kids go to Mountford Manor, and one year they walked out after seeing Santa and said: ‘I think that was grandad. He smells like grandad and he talks like grandad.’

“Some kids are a bit shy, but I soon bring them round.”

John usually rocks up in a pair of wellies, but this year has splashed out on a pair of proper boots, which will surely serve him well as he flies across Swindon on his sleigh.

So when you tuck the little ones into bed on Christmas Eve, pleading with the excitable mites to go to sleep, remember that John, 73, from Gorse Hill, will make all their dreams come true.