In the run-up to Christmas, you can bet there is one person who is never far away.

Father Christmas has been a regular at many festive events over the years – and that’s one thing that’s not likely to change, even if at a distance in these troubled times.

A big cheer went up when Santa put in an appearance at a Christmas party at the Hollybush in Corn Street, Witney, in 1992, in Picture 1.

He was even more popular when he produced his sack containing gifts for everyone present. The party was organised by the Gingerbread group for children with just one parent.

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Picture 2 was taken at a Christmas bazaar organised by the Northway division of St John Ambulance in 1986.

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James Trueman

Four-year-old James Trueman, of Stainfield Road, Oxford, is seen with Santa in Picture 2.

The event at the division headquarters in Maltfield Road, Oxford, raised £107 towards the cost of equipping an ambulance with a tail-lift for the elderly and disabled.

Christmas can be very confusing, especially when it is your first, as ten-month-old Russell Green, in Picture 3, found out.

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To see someone in red clothing with a huge white beard was challenging enough, but then Father Christmas turned out to be a woman and she climbed into his cot!

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Just imagine what young Russell must have thought at a Christmas party for members of the Balliol playgroup in Oxford in 1969.

There was plenty of Christmas cheer, too, at the King and Queen pub at Wheatley – of the inflatable kind. Bar manager Graham Barr is seen in Picture 4 with two blown-up Santas, who greeted festive customers in 1992.

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Graham Barr

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Patrick Ramsey, nine, and his sister Alice, six, from Wantage, are seen in Picture 5 at a Christmas fair at Stanford in the Vale in 1998.

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while in Picture 6, there was plenty of Christmas cheer in a Morris Minor fire engine in the Westgate Centre in Oxford.

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James Del Nevo, eight, of First Turn, Wolvercote, and Ben Stillwell, five, and his brother Oliver, three, of Little Milton, give a festive wave with Father Christmas in 1985.