He’s the big, jolly man in red we all know and love, with his generosity bringing gifts, and more importantly, happiness to children right around the world. Despite it being his busiest time of year, the typically illusive Santa Claus was kind enough to take time out of his final preparations for Christmas to take part in The Last Word and shed some light on his life away from the spotlight.

I grew up in… the Arctic, at my family’s property, The North Pole. It was a pretty isolated childhood, but the elves were always happy to keep me company.
The first thing I do when I wake up is… go outside and feed the reindeer.

If I could be better at anything it would be… navigating. I’m lucky that I have a GPS now, but I have become lost a few times over the years.
I am at my happiest when… I am bringing joy to children around the world. That, and when I have enough time off, taking Mrs Claus on holiday somewhere warm and sunny.

When I am not working I am… either reading (my favourite books are A Christmas Carol and Sleigh Repairs for Dummies), having epic snow fights with the elves, or cooking up a storm in the kitchen with Mrs Claus.

I wish I could… make every child’s wishes come true. I do my best, but some requests just aren’t possible, and that’s the toughest part of my job.

My biggest fashion blunder was… thinking I could pull off skinny jeans and swapping my usual half-moon glasses for a pair of tortoiseshell wayfarers. Mrs Claus says she thinks I was having a midlife crisis, but really I just got swept up in that whole hipster craze. The cornrows she convinced me to get while we were holidaying in the Caribbean in the early 2000s are a close second.

When I was growing up I wanted to be… the next ‘Santa’ just like my father and his father before him. The Christmas spirit runs in our family.

I couldn’t live without… Mrs Claus, the elves, and of course, my trusty reindeer.

My most annoying habit is… I never knock before entering a house. When you’re delivering presents, you sneak around a lot, so it’s hard to switch that off. It’s made for some pretty awkward situations with the elves and is something I really need to work on.

My hidden talent is… fitting into tight spaces. Even I don’t know how I do it sometimes!

I laugh out loud when… I’m nervous. I don’t spend much time around people outside of December as I’m usually either hard at work or laying low, so I tend to laugh a lot in social situations. I’ve always been very jolly though, so I guess it paints an accurate picture of the kind of person I am!

People don’t know that I… am actually terrible at gift wrapping (I usually get help from the elves) but I am great at freestyle rapping.