Father Christmas’s high value and high risk job delivering toys to nearly eight million children on 24th December would require a number of specialist insurance policies to cover against any mishaps.
Important factors when insuring the man in the red suit include insuring his trademark ‘ho ho ho’, ‘elf and safety for his workforce, and even cover for the vet looking after Rudolph and co. Not to mention Father Christmas is covered for any of his activities on the night, such as chimney diving and roof hopping!
Starting with Father Christmas’s preparations in January and carrying on right up to the big day in December, the specialists at Towergate have estimated he’d need the following:
Non-Standard Home insurance
Leaving behind his 6-bedroom timber, detached Grade-1 listed £2m home in the North Pole, Santa’s home needs adequate, non-standard home protection.
Employers’ liability insurance
With a merry work force made up of 200 magic elves, Father Christmas is responsible for their ‘elf and safety while they work for him. If an elf was injured or got RSI from the constant wooden toy production, Santa would need adequate cover to provide compensation.
Commercial property insurance
Santa’s toy workshop needs round the clock cover in case of theft, fire – or in the case of the North Pole – flooding (from snow).
Reindeer’s vet’s insurance
With eight working reindeer vital to get the sleigh moving, it’s important Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Vixen and co are in the best health. If one or more were sick or injured, this could be costly for Father Christmas if he didn’t have a specialist policy in place.
Over 65s travel insurance
Falling into the over-65 category, Father Christmas would require a specialist travel insurance policy. This is needed to protect him for the unusual activities he participates in - such as sleigh-flying all the way over from the North Pole to the UK, chimney diving and roof hopping - not the average activities for a pensioner!
Commercial Vehicle insurance
Father Christmas’s yearly deliveries on his sleigh mean commercial vehicle cover is a must – covering against knocking into the odd plane, shooting star or drone; nothing must get in the way of delivering those toys on Christmas Eve!
Goods in transit insurance
With nearly eight million excited children in the UK awaiting the safe delivery of their Christmas toys, a policy for Santa’s goods in transit on his flying sleigh is necessary to cover off any stolen, lost or broken toys.
Public liability
If Santa truly got stuck up the chimney after one too many mince pies or leaves a soot trail all over the carpet, he’d have to pay the bill himself if he didn’t have public liability insurance.
Performing arts policy
A specialist performing arts policy is recommended to cover Father Christmas’s legendary ‘ho ho ho’ should anything go wrong with his vocal chords during the busy festive season.
TOTAL - £27 million
Drew Wotherspoon of Towergate, comments: “Being Father Christmas is clearly a risky role and we’ve drawn upon our years of expertise and knowledge to estimate the kind of policies he’d need if such a role did exist. We love creating flexible policies for the more unique individuals and businesses out there, and if we were ever asked to insure the real Father Christmas, his advanced age, speedy delivery schedule, high value gifts and chimney and roof hopping activities all need to be accounted for.
“We haven’t had many enquiries yet for sleigh commercial vehicle insurance or elf employers’ liability insurance, but we pride ourselves at offering more than 200 insurance products for individual customers and businesses.”
To celebrate the Christmas spirit, Towergate has created an illustrated Ode to Santa’s Clauses. You can read it here
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