Pub Bucks trend with Christmas in July

Ho, Ho, Ho — staff member Luke Rees dons a Father Christmas suit to say cheers to Christmas in the summer

It was a hot July day and pub customers in Oldham were celebrating . . . Christmas. 

Father Christmas turned up five months early at the Buck and Union pub, Union Street, and Christmas decorations were festooned around the pub.

It was a strange sight but many onlookers pointed out that in Australia this was nothing new.

There they often celebrate Christmas on the beach in hot weather. So staff at the Buck and Union reckoned that they, too, would celebrate in the sun.

A spokesman said: “It was just a bit of fun to get the customers in.”

Pub-goers seemed to be getting the message and staff reported a good Christmas Eve on Saturday night with a drag artist from Yorkshire.

Christmas Day, alias Sunday, brought a slap up lunch of turkey and all the trimmings, and the customers just kept on arriving, despite some baking hot temperatures.

By Boxing Day, or Monday as it is known everywhere else in Oldham, it was all a bit much and everyone was flopping around sleeping off the season’s festivities. But one stalwart was still standing sentry outside — Father Christmas, of course.