SANTA has been causing trouble..

By Matthew Jones
December 16 2002

Santa has been dressing up in red and white to keep youg football fans happy, but what if you are a Geordie?? Young Toon fans have been annoyed so Santa will be compramising, and switching suits now and again :) After all, it is Christmas!

Young Newcastle United supporters were annoyed when they found out that the traditionally dressed Santa in Peterlee's Asda store supports red and white striped Sunderland.

And, because it is the season of goodwill, supermarket staff thought they would have to do something to keep all the boys and girls happy.
Helen Pattison, a spokeswoman for the town store, said they decided to have a second Santa suit made in Newcastle's black and white colours to keep everyone in high spirits.

She said: "Our Santa is lovely and chats to all the boys and girls about what they like to do and the talk normally turns to football. This area is football mad. But half support Sunderland and the other half are Newcastle supporters."

Helen added: "Santa will be alternating the suits, so if anyone wants to make a special request to see the Newcastle Santa they can. The whole thing is just a bit of fun to cheer people up. We just want to keep all the children happy."

Both sets of children will also be happy with Newcastle challenging once again for Europe and relegation threatened Sunderland surprisingly beating Liverpool 2-1 yesterday.