If you’ve been driving around Watford and quietly tutting to yourself over the sprinkling of Christmas lights already adorning people’s house fronts when it’s still only November – November, for goodness’ sake – then you need to spend an hour or two with actor Mark Desmond, who plays Father Christmas in Watford Colosseum’s first ever Christmas show, Santa Claus and the Christmas Adventure. This is a man who sings carols in the middle of summer, so decorations going up a month early are right up his street.

“Christmas is all year round for me,“ laughs the Welsh Southampton resident, not quite in a ho ho ho kind of a way, but there are traces of it in his voice, “so I’m probably the perfect person to play Santa.“

The show opens this weekend and the action takes place at Santa’s HQ in the North Pole. The reindeer sat nav is programmed, the toys are piled high on the sleigh, and Santa is all ready to go – when suddenly, disaster strikes! Rudolph is missing and the elves are up to no good. Will Santa ever deliver the presents to all the girls and boys?

“It’s more than just a show,“ continues Mark, 48, “there are songs, nursery rhymes, magic and snow – it snows on the audience! And every child who comes gets to meet Santa afterwards and receive a gift. For many children, this could be their first piece of theatre, and it’s going to be a truly magical, memorable experience for them.“

The last performance of Santa Claus and the Christmas Adventure, aimed at two- to eight-year-olds, takes place on Christmas Eve, and afterwards Mark will be jetting off (the sleigh will be otherwise engaged, obviously) to Spain to spend the holiday with his partner’s family – and they’ll be taking a bottle of sherry and a tin of shortbread with them to have on the big day while they open their presents.

“If I was the real Santa, I’d want the kids to leave out shortbread rather than a mince pie,“ laughs Mark, “and not sherry – I wouldn’t be compos mentis by Christmas morning!

“We’ll spend Christmas in Spain or in the UK or sometimes we’ll just head off to a different part of the world,“ continues Mark, “but for me, The Wizard of Oz always has to be part of the Christmas Day package, and we always have our Wurlitzer Christmas Songs CD on while we’re opening our presents and while I’m doing the cooking.“

Mark, who spent Christmases as a child in Llanelli with his parents and grandparents and “always resisted the temptation to sneak downstairs and open his presents early“, can’t wait for the opportunity to be part of so many children’s Christmases.

“It’s a privilege to be part of their Christmas experience. I genuinely hope that we can bring a sense of wonder and magic into what can often be a busy, hectic run-up to Christmas.“

Isn’t Mark worried that he and the other cast members – including Nicholas Corre from Watford, who plays Charlie the Elf – will send the children into a Yule-induced frenzy that their parents will have to cope with for the weeks still left to go before Christmas?

“If the kids are hyper then, quite frankly, we’ve done our jobs,“ he laughs. “Then it’s up to the parents to keep that excitement going!“