Santa elves out of work as jobs are outsourced

It seems that even Santa is not immune from the dreaded management review and, just five days before Christmas, the management is outsourcing his elves.

The dead hand of cost-cutting has been felt at Santa Park, in Lapland, northern Finland, which welcomes tens of thousands of tourists each year. But it has struggled to justify its number of full-time staff as it is open only from November to January and briefly in the summer.

Wille Rajala, the Park's managing director, said: "We used to have 120 people on a monthly salary, which was ridiculous. Now we are down to three full-timers."

Santa Park, which is 520 miles north of Helsinki, opened five years ago but has debts of £315,000.