After two years in custody at the Wakefield Police Station, Santa has had a makeover and emerged to celebrate Christmas in the village.
It has been a community effort to resurrect Santa after he started showing his age and didn’t come out for a couple of years. Constable Jamie White who had him in custody prompted the makeover and the team at Rowan Dron Electrical carried out the work to restore Santa to his former twinkly self. Then the Wakefield
Volunteer Fire Brigade hoisted him up to his long-held position on top of the Wakefield Pharmacy. As the sun went down, Santa was lit up and a tradition was restored.
Jamie says hoisting Santa up every year has been a Wakefield tradition for decades and for the rest of the year he is tucked away at the police station.
But age was taking its toll on Santa and it had got to the stage he needed more than a few tweaks to make him jolly.
“Every year they had to do a few more things, until he was too damaged.
“I’ve been keen for a while to get him back up there because, when I was a kid, I always thought it was really cool and I wanted to bring him back. My kids love it and so do the adults.”
So, he organised Rowan Dron and his team to fix Santa up and it was no easy fix because Santa needed a lot of work.
“The cool thing about it is a small community has community spirit.”
Next year, Santa may be waving for Christmas, but in the meantime, Jamie says it is great to have him back, looking over the village and spreading the Christmas cheer.
