Father Christmas show cancelled due to snow in Conwy
- Published
Even Santa Claus has been beaten by the snow in one historic town, where his Christmas Eve visit has been cancelled due to the bad weather.
Father Christmas usually appears on the walls of 13th Century Conwy castle and on stage in Vicarage Gardens to read out children's Christmas messages.
The event usually attracts crowds of up to 3,000 and was scheduled to start at 1800 GMT on Christmas Eve.
Conwy Town Council has apologised for the cancellation.
Town councillor Sara Allardice said: "I'm sorry to say that Conwy Town Council has unanimously voted to cancel the Christmas Eve carols, Santa and fireworks event due to the weather."
The centre of Conwy still has about 8in (20cm) of snow which fell at the start of the week and has yet to melt.
The event, which has been running for more than a decade, has become so popular that special traffic control and parking measures have had to be put in place in previous years.
Town mayor Vicky MacDonald said the icy conditions had forced the cancellation of the popular Christmas Eve event.
She said: "The problem is compacted ice with snow above it, then more ice and then more snow. It's been so cold it's just stayed frozen and it's very dangerous underfoot.
"We'd got such a special line up as well.
'Magical'
"Elgan Llŷr Thomas, the Bryn Terfel Scholarship winner, was due to sing for us in the square, and Sioned Terry the mezzo soprano was going to sing too, as well as all the other bands and singers.
"It was going to be so festive and it just doesn't seem the same tonight.
"It's magical, the children sing Jingle Bells and suddenly Father Christmas arrives.
"People come from all over the place, from the Wirral and Cheshire, so it was a really difficult decision to cancel. We love to plan this."
The Boxing Day swim at Deganwy, in Conwy county, has also been cancelled due to the cold weather, on advice from the RNLI.