Most of the children are young enough to believe I am Santa Claus

I'm a short, fat, jolly person. I do, however, have to wear a false beard.

Most of the children who come to the grotto are young enough to believe I am Santa Claus. In this day and age, you can't really have children sitting on your knee so they usually stand next to me as I sit in my big armchair.

I ask them to leave a mince pie and a glass of milk for me, and a carrot for Rudolph - and I'm tempted to go around checking to see if they have.

No chimney for this Santa

The grotto is in the fire station's smoke tower, where the fire-fighters do their training with the breathing apparatus, and all my reindeer are up on the roof.

In this day and age, you can't really have children sitting on your knee

This year it's filled with animatronic animals from Marwell Zoo which can't run its own grotto this year because of foot-and-mouth.

The fire safety team have also set up a display to encourage people to be careful over the holiday season. They've set up a mock chip-pan fire and a teenager's bedroom exactly as if there had been a fire.

And this is one Santa who has been recommending smoke detectors as stocking fillers.