IT’S hard enough for Father Christmas having to deliver presents to everyone on Christmas Eve, but the job of Santa has always been a tough one in the weeks leading up to Christmas as this delve into the Bolton News archives reveals.

The man in red is much in demand throughout December and over the years he’s got involved in a variety of things.

Our main picture shows Santa demonstrating his skills performing with the Horwich Prize Medal Morris Men at Little Lever shopping centre accompanied by members of the Bolton Brass Band in 1981.

Four-year-old Alyson Stanford was photographed posting her letter to Santa in the special postbox outside a toy shop on Chorley Old Road, Bolton, in 1968 and Santa found himself an assistant in the form of Carol Hughes who waited William & Glyn’s Bank in Little Lever to distribute presents to the village’s children in 1979.

Father Christmas was also pictured showing off his musical prowess in 1976, although Mark Platt, nine, seems less than impressed with his tuba skills at the Harwood precinct.

Santa is never happier than being in his grotto and our picture from 1973 shows him with children outside his grotto on the third floor of the Co-op Superstore, Oxford Street, Bolton.

Santa is also a bit of a partygoer and in 1973 he was the special guest for the children of employees of the Holcombe Brook, Ramsbottom, firm of Cheswich & Wright (B and M) Ltd, at their annual party at the United Veterans’ Club on Duke Street, Bolton.

Father Christmas enlisted some young helpers to promote Little Lever Carnival Committee’s Christmas Fair at Little Lever Cricket Club in 1980 and he was also joined by snowmen from Bolton Round Table collecting in Bolton town centre in 1985.