UK’s ‘longest serving Santa’ won’t hang up his hat just yet
A MAN of 82 reckons he is the UK’s longestserving Santa and has no plans to retire after 53 years in his white beard and red robes.
Ron Horniblew said he still got a thrill from making people smile but longed for the “old days” when children received a handful of presents rather than mountains of gifts.
He became a Santa for his son in 1964 and enjoyed it so much he has visited Norway, Denmark and Sweden to compete against others and was once crowned world champion Father Christmas. He said one of his most moving experiences was handing out tangerines and sweets tied with ribbons at an orphanage run by nuns in the Bahamas.
He said: “If I can make one person happy, that’s great. You’ll get some people who think, ‘Silly old fool’. But I’m the clever one, because I’m happy and it makes me feel young.”
Ron, who lives in Luton, Beds, with wife Betty, and still works in the furniture business, said: “If you want a toy for a baby, the best toy is a cardboard box with some paper in. They will play for hours with it – plus they’re using their imagination.”
He said he struggled to understand the huge numbers of presents children get now, adding: “I go to people’s houses on Christmas morning just to make sure I’ve delivered the right presents and sometimes I can’t walk across the lounge because there’s so many.
“How can children play with all these? In my days you had one or maybe two presents.”