Father Christmas made a rare appearance in Falmouth after the festive season when he agreed to have his 32-year-old beard shaved off for charity.

Using his off-duty name of Bob Kiszczuk, Santa agreed to a barefaced challenge – the public removal of the beard he had been growing since 1977, in order to raise over £530 for Cornwall Hospice Care.

Mr Kiszczuk is well known in the town after being out and about in Falmouth over the Christmas period dressed in his red Santa outfit.

A crowd of around 20 people gathered at St Mary’s Catholic Church hall, where volunteer Clive Morris played the Sweeney Todd role and made a clean shave of it with only one nick for St Nicholas.

Christine Morris, Falmouth support group chairman for the charity, said: “Grateful thanks from the Falmouth Support Group for having us as his chosen charity. That’s a wonderful amount to have out of the blue, without any extra fundraising. He’s had such a lot of support, so grateful thanks to everybody that supported him.”

She added that such was the level of support, Mr Kiszczuk kept running out of sponsorship forms.