Sunderland grandmother moved to write festive book after twin granddaughters fear Covid will ruin Christmas

Suzanne Andrews wrote Santa’s Got It Covered after four-year-olds Isla and Freya Vincent began to worry if this year’s festivities would be cancelled – and raised concerns that Father Christmas is in a high risk group.

Now her story, which features the identical twins and their favourite toys Dolly and Uni the unicorn on its cover, is being used across the country by families also looking to explain how this year will be different.

Suzanne, 54, from Ashbrooke, is a semi-retired special needs teaching assistant who has worked at Portland Academy, and has volunteered to help the NHS and Sunderland City Council as they support the most vulnerable and isolated this year.

She has also helped daughter Megan Vincent, 31, and husband Michael, with looking after the twins as they continue in their keyworker roles.

Suzanne, who is married to global quality manager Steven, 55, had the book illustrated by Kelly Waddington thanks to a website which pairs up creative people.

“The twins were asking about Santa not being able to get to them because they had heard on the news Christmas might not be happening,” said Suzanne.

"They already new it would be different because they can’t go and see their great-grandparents and they know Santa is elderly and a bit overweight and they were worried about his health, so I just wrote this little story for them.

"It’s brilliant to see it printed and it’s lovely because the girls are on the cover with their toys.

"It explains how Santa has being doing his Tik Tok dances, doing video Zoom meetings with the elves and is making sure everyone’s sticking to social distancing, so they know it’s not cancelled.

"I know it’ll only make sense for this year, but it can be a keepsake to show what it was like.”

The book has a blank page at the back so Santa can jot a note and has been picked up by St Patrick’s RC Primary in Ryhope, where the girls attend.

It is £6 from Amazon, where it can also be downloaded for a Kindle.

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