Then, he rigged the fake Santa with an automatic parachute, like those used by the military to make cargo drops. Photograph: PA Archive/PA Images Nigel Rogoff fell 100ft and lost a leg after his jump went wrong but later circumnavigated the UK by kayak and hand cycle and rowed across the Atlantic .

To this day, the town of Mesa, Arizona, continues to revel in their history, with annual retellings of the story. Santa hangs from a beautiful parachute, landing right there on your front lawn, while multi-coloured LEDs light up the parachute in an array of glowing colours.The figure equipped with a parachute probably had a softer landing, but it was probably also harder to predict where exactly it would land. Then, McPhee himself would retrieve the dummy, dress in his suit and beard, and play the part of Santa.

Challenge your class to make a parachute for a paper Santa using any or all of the equipment in the trays. Now he is devoting his Christmas and the first few months of the new year to embark on an intrepid challenge in aid of others who have suffered life-changing injuries.

To assemble your parachute, attach one end of each suspension line to each corner of the tissue paper, fold the canopy in four so its corners lay on top of each other, and knot the unattached ends of the four suspension lines together. Children began screaming, parents attempted to console them, and unsuspecting workers in a nearby field bolted at the sight of a man, rocketing toward them. What actually happened, however, resulted in far less merriment, as the parachute never deployed, and the man responsible for the stunt was run out of town, branded as the “man who killed Santa Claus.

After his accident in 1998, he married Sarah, the nurse who was caring for him at the rehabilitation centre at Headley Court in Epsom, Surrey, and the couple now have 14-year-old twins Harry and Oliver, who plan to be at the finish line to greet him in February time. After the break Villa roared back to win 3-2 with Julian Joachim scoring and Dion Dublin bagging a brace.And so, in front of the “largest crowd in [Mesa’s] history,” a plane loaded with a plastic Santa Claus took off. Make sure the place you choose is safe and, if you are working above ground level, that the activity is carried out under adult supervision. The year prior, the town’s Santa had arrived by plane, though it had been a grounded one and Santa had simply walked down the steps onto the tarmac. The panic of seeing Santa’s “death” had caused children to become hysterical, parents to become enraged, and prompted one woman to go into premature labor.