Christmas tour underway

Santa’s “ice castle”

Tim’s tour of Santa’s grottoes, timed to coincide with this week’s release of the Ariège single, kicked off on Saturday at the Whitgift Centre in Croydon, where Santa sits inside an ice castle awaiting the tiny tots.

Performing Phil Spector’s Christmas Album in its entirety, Tim was given a surprisingly warm reception given the icy environs, and only one under-five burst into tears. That was probably the emotion brought on by Tim’s heart-rending reading of Frosty The Snowman.