Girl mistakes supermarket shopper for Father Christmas, he plays along

Sophia Jo spotted the Saint Nick doppelganger at a Walmart in West Virginia

A little girl was left delighted when she spotted a man who looked uncannily like Father Christmas while food shopping.

Sophia Jo spotted the Saint Nick doppelganger at a Walmart in Hurricane, West Virginia, and rather than correcting her the man knelt down to the girl and played along.

Sophia’s father, Robert Riley filmed the encounter, and posting it on Facebook said: “Sophia found Santa at Walmart this evening.

“She saw him then kept sneaking up on him. She asked him if he was Santa at first.

“So cute and innocent. I love this!”

The Santa look-alike is understood to be Roger Larck, a Hurricane local, who, commenting on Mr Riley’s video, said: “Christmas is always a fun time around little kids but this little girl was just so sweet and innocent it was a real pleasure talking with her.”

After realising he had been mistaken for the bearded gift-giver Mr Larck asks "Have you been a good girl this year?”, leading to an exchange between the pair, who discuss Christmas decorations, cookies and reindeer.

Since being posted last week the video has been viewed over 120,000 times and shared over 2,700 times on Facebook.