Mr and Mrs Claus say ‘magic’ and ‘date nights’ are key to 350-year marriage as they mark ‘icicle wedding anniversary’

The real-life Mr and Mrs Claus have said “magic” and “date nights” are the secret to their 350 years of marriage as they celebrate their icicle wedding anniversary.

John and Rachael Tearney, 55 and 46 respectively, from Stamford Bridge, East Yorkshire, have been embodying Father Christmas and his doting wife every day throughout December since 2021 in an immersive winter wonderland experience at Lotherton Hall near Leeds.

The couple, who have been together for nine years and tied the knot in summer 2022, act throughout the rest of the year, writing and performing in children’s theatre and murder mystery events.

But each Christmas they settle into grotto life by telling ancient tales from Lapland and watching over mischievous elves, one of which is occasionally played by John’s son from a previous marriage, 22-year-old Luke.

This year he cannot reprise his role because he is away at drama school.

Taking great responsibility and pride in their work, the Christmas-mad couple are careful to not shatter the illusion for the 300-odd children they meet on a daily basis at the grotto, saying they often need to think on their feet when their young guests become “suspicious”.

“We’re celebrating our icicle wedding anniversary, which is about 350 years… next year will be our iceberg anniversary. That’s a biggie,” Rachael told PA Real Life.

“The secret to a long marriage is keeping the magic alive, having a good giggle together and date nights.”

John said: “It’s easy for us to do date night, we can park the sleigh anywhere because there’s no yellow lines.”

The pair met 10 years ago during a touring tribute show to the BBC sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo.

While John has played Father Christmas for 12 years, the couple decided to expand their act to include Mrs Claus three years ago.

“We’ve done lots of different entertainment over the years, such as pantomimes and tours, but now we’ve settled into doing the grotto – we both love Christmas,” Rachael said.

“It’s lovely to have the opportunity to create the magic for the children in the best way possible – the way that you would imagine from story books or what you imagined the grotto to be like when you were a child.

“We try to create that now and that’s really lovely.”

John added: “I think back to when I was a kid and what it meant to me and I use that, knowing what it means to children these days.”

Visitors of Lotherton Hall enjoy a captivating winter wonderland experience, including a snowy woodland walk resembling a “Narnia landscape” followed by the elf emporium before reaching Mrs Claus and Father Christmas.

Because of their busy schedules, the couple said they must prepare for the holidays in November – decorating their home and completing their Christmas shopping in advance.

“We have to have our decorations up around November 20, we’re always the earliest and the first in our street,” Rachael said.

“We have to do our Christmas shopping very early as otherwise we run out of time.”

John added: “Mine is all done and dusted… good old eBay.”

A typical day at work for John and Rachael begins with hair and makeup before spending around eight hours meeting and greeting children  to hear their Christmas wishes.

But they say a day in the North Pole starts a little slower – with hot chocolate and Christmas biscuits before feeding the elves and reindeer.

“I’m actually bit groggy this morning as I was up all night in the stable because our reindeer, Vixen, had a baby boy… she’s going to call him Rocket,” John said.

Mrs Claus then starts present-wrapping, baking or knitting stockings for the baby elves, followed by hot sausage rolls at lunchtime, before they start on the letters – the “life-blood of the business”, according to John.

But chaos is never too far away as their candy cane machine recently stopped working.

“We had to send in the smallest elf, Tiny Tingles, to find out what the problem was,” John said.

“It turned out that Jingle the elf, his hat had fallen into the mechanism and stopped the machine from working – we retrieved the hat and everything was back to normal… it was a relief.”

The pair usually shut the grotto doors on December 23 or 24, although a Christmas Eve shift can be tricky to explain to observant children.

“Lots of children ask obvious questions like ‘Santa, why are you still here? Shouldn’t you be in the North Pole?’,” John said.

“You have to come up with a way out of that, and I usually say as soon as they’ve gone, I’m hopping into my sleigh which travels at supersonic speed back to the North Pole and then I’ll be off round the world.”

John said another frequently asked question is how he manages to visit each house in one night – to which he replies it is down to a genius combination of Santa Nav, supersonic speed and time zones.

“I have a standard belief that the children shouldn’t have too much access to Santa to keep the mystery,” he said.

“You can fall foul of giving too much away and it should be fleeting memory – less is more.”

Rachael added: “You have to think on your feet sometimes when it gets to the point where the children are getting a little bit suspicious.”

Despite the concentrated festivity, John and Rachael still go all-out on December 25.

“We love it. We always have a roast with all the trimmings, Christmas pudding,” Rachael said, while John added he must watch the 1950s version of Scrooge every year.

They hope to continue their festive act together, with Rachael saying: “I can’t see it ending anytime soon.”