Welcome to Jingle Wells

YOU couldn’t blame the poor postman for stopping his van and rubbing his eyes in disbelief.

After all, it’s not every day you find the road on your usual route taken over by an army of Santas marching purposively in a kind of Reservoir Dogs formation, patting their bellies, and bellowing out cheers of ‘Ho ho ho!’

I’m in the midst of that advancing sea of red and white, as the 30 of us, and our glamorous elf assistants, make our way to Santa training school in the wonderfully named Wookey Hole in rural Wells, near the counties of Bath and Somerset in southwest England.