For those of you who think that Santa and his little helpers come from Lapland, think again. There are a growing number of agencies that now supply our favourite Christmas characters to shopping centres and department stores.

One such company, St Albans-based Dream Time Management, supplies staff for grottoes all over the UK. Its grotto in Lakeside Shopping Centre has so far dealt with Christmas requests from around 28,000 children.

But times have changed from when any old man in a white beard could be offered the job, according to director Alison Berneye. Dream Time performs exhaustive 10-year reference checks and Criminal Records Bureau checks on every member of grotto staff it supplies.

It also has to ensure that children are not left alone with Santa, so it’s crucial that an elf is on hand at all times. “We make sure there’s always an elf in the grotto with Santa. Unfortunately, people do make up allegations,” said Berneye.