A PUB landlord is calling on the culprit behind a stolen Santa to return the festive decoration.

It comes after the now missing Father Christmas disappeared from Ringwood’s London Tavern last Thursday.

He was last seen wearing a Christmas jumper, carrying presents and a pair of skis.

Now, father-of-two and landlord Phil Hoyle wants the punter to return the bearded figure - worth £60 - back to the award-winning pub, as his twin daughters are missing the Santa ornament.

He runs the pub alongside Sarah Williams and bought the jolly figure this year for an alpine bar he is building in the beer garden.

The bar is set to open this Friday at 5pm.

He said: “I bought the Santa for our Alpine bar that we thought would be something a bit different for our hundreds of regulars.

“I put the Santa on a window sill inside the pub and during a very busy night he vanished.

"Our regulars are a great bunch, but someone must have thought it amusing to take him."

Phil added: "We are calling on that person to show a bit of Christmas spirit and return Santa to us. He was new this year.

"We have two children who are very upset.

"I'm a little disappointed as he has obviously been nicked and I was hoping to launch our alpine bar with a picture of the Santa.

“Running a pub is hard enough these days without people pinching the decorations.

"We are still going ahead with the alpine bar.”

Phil won best newcomer at the EI Awards earlier this year alongside landlord Sarah Williams.

He previously ran his own events company before taking over the pub.