WITH the countdown to Christmas well under way, one skydiving company is busy training a new wave of aspiring Santa Clauses - in case an emergency sleigh evacuation is needed during the lightning fast delivery schedule.

As the nation's obsession with health and safety continues, it seems even Father Christmas cannot escape its clutches - and so one enterprising skydive company is offering a brand new solution to help them overcome festive red tape.

GoSkydive, founded in  2008 at Old Sarum, near Salisbury, has created a first-of-its-kind training school for budding Santas this Christmas - 'Santa Skydive Training School' - teaching them to skydive from their sleigh should a fault occur mid-air and an emergency evacuation be required.

GoSkydive has already put half a dozen jolly aspiring Santas through their paces with a hands-on tandem skydive instructor training session.

Before taking to the skies, the Santa students completed an on-the-ground training session with GoSkydive's team of experienced instructors, which included learning the freefall and landing positions in the centre's simulated training area.

Once adorned in their traditional Father Christmas wear and sack of presents ready to go, the budding Santas boarded the plane with their tandem skydive instructors and travelled up to the heady heights of 15,000ft - the UK's highest tandem skydive altitude.

With their target delivery area in sight, the Santa students jumped from the plane over Wiltshire to experience up to 60 seconds of freefall reaching speeds of up to 125mph - that's enough to make even the most seasoned Santa's cheeks turn red.

With their parachutes deployed, the Santas floated back down to solid ground with presents intact, ready for delivery.

Open to both novice and experienced Santas, existing skydiving experience is not required to attend the Santa Skydive Training School with 'first-timers' being a speciality for GoSkydive.

The tandem skydive specialists are also able to cope with the heavier build of a traditional Father Christmas thanks to its higher weight limit at 18-stone rather than the industry standard of 15-stone. Age is also not an issue, having jumped adrenaline junkies aged up to 95.

Gordon Blamire, founder and managing director, said: “We were hearing reports of Father Christmas not being able to deliver all his presents this year and wanted to lend a helping hand - tandem skydiving provides an ideal solution should he experience any sleigh issues.

"GoSkydive is the only centre that specialises in tandem skydives for ‘first-timers’, so we’re used to helping our visitors manage those first time nerves- and our novice Santas will be no different."

For more information and to book a tandem skydive visit www.goskydive.com

GoSkydive is the only centre that specialises in tandem skydives for ‘first-timers’. It offers the UK’s highest skydive at 15,000ft with up to 60 seconds of free fall.

GoSkydive operates throughout the year is regulated by the British Parachute Association and has a team of full-time professional tandem skydive instructors, who have completed in excess of 30,000 jumps.