It's time for sighs of relief all round. Fears that Christmas could be missing one of its essentials have been proved groundless. Santa is definitely on his way.

Foot-and-mouth disease may have caused misery for millions this year, but Father Christmas and his cloven-footed reindeer will be doing their rounds - and that's official.

Despite livestock movement restrictions which are still in place across parts of the country, the Men from the Ministry have proved their hearts are in the right place.

And they have formally granted Santa the necessary licence to take Rudolf and his four-legged pals out for the Christmas Eve deliveries - as long they take their usual airborne route.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs acted quickly after young Michael and Sarah Thompson voiced the fears of children on farms across the UK.

The youngsters, aged six and four, live on their parents' farm at Saltburn and they wrote to the Farmers' Guardian to express their concern that Santa might not reach them without a special licence.

"Surely once the reindeer have been on one farm they'll be at a standstill for three weeks and it'll take about 10 years to deliver all the presents," they moaned.

Reindeer are susceptible to the disease and are affected by the restrictions but a Defra team promptly took up the case.

And as a result the Disease Control Centre has now issued a special licence to Mr S Claus - following his assurance that he would stick to his unique approach to making deliveries.

"After the upheaval caused by foot-and-mouth we can understand why Michael and Sarah were so worried," said Defra's deputy director of operations Brian Woolacott. "However providing Santa makes his roof-top landings as usual, as specified in the special licence we have granted, they can rest assured that he will be able to deliver presents to everyone who deserves them this year." Probably for the first time in its existence, Defra was being thanked by millions last night.