THROUGHOUT Hampshire children have been visiting Santa’s grottos.

This Christmas you could see him on at steam train on the Watercress Line, in a vintage car at Beaulieu village, with lady elves at the Marlands Centre in Southampton, arriving by boat with glowing coloured rescue flares in Lymington and with a Mrs Claus at Marwell Zoo.

But seeing Father Christmas, Santa, or St Nicholas is a daunting think for many a child, not least, what to call him - Mr Claus, Santa or Father Christmas?

Father Christmas is the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas. 

The English personifications of Christmas were first recorded the 15th century, with Father Christmas himself first appearing in the mid-17th century in the aftermath of the English Civil War.

The figure of Santa Claus had originated in the USA, drawing at least partly upon Dutch St Nicolas traditions. The two figures have gradually blurred into one.

But it’s not just the name that may be daunting to children. The funny costume, the hood or the hat, with hair, bald or wigged, with or without glasses, tall or short, thin or appropriately fat? And will their beard be real or fake? Who is this strange man?

The Daily Echo looked through the archives to see some Father Christmas’s from the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

Some are scary, some jolly, others odd and one seems to be arriving by rocket.

Some show simpler times when just an orange from Santa was enough to bring a smile to a child’s face.