This festive period is extra special for a Liverpool Father Christmas
18:04, 19 Dec 2025Updated 18:10, 19 Dec 2025
Story teller Saul Murphy with his daughter Neve at Liverpool Town Hall(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
A Liverpool dad has shared his pride as his daughter follows his footsteps. Saul Murphy works behind the scenes in film and TV, but every December he has another important role to play. The 48-year-old, who lives in Wallasey, has worked alongside his friend Richie on Storytime With Santa for the past 15 years.
The much-loved annual Christmas event has been running since 2010 at the Floral Pavilion Theatre in New Brighton and at Liverpool Town Hall since 2015.
Saul is currently performing as Father Christmas at the Liverpool Town Hall events, which are set to continue until Christmas Eve.
But this year marks as extra special addition of the event for Saul. His daughter, Neve Murphy, has this year joined her dad this year to perform as an elf.
Story teller Saul Murphy with his daughter Neve at Liverpool Town Hall(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
Speaking ahead of the shows, Saul told the ECHO: “It’s amazing, actually. I’m glad she is. I’d say I’ve never pushed her. So her mother is a professional performer. She’s doing Panto now.
“She’s probably better than me, to be fair. And she still is a 100% full-time performer. I work a lot now behind the scenes in film and television.
“But Charlie and I have never sort of pushed [Neve]. She’s grown up around us performing. And as I say, she’s been to the Storytime every year for years, so she understands what I do. She’s seen the show a million times.
“We’re going to obviously rehearse it a bit more, but she feels it’s something she can do. I’m very proud.”
He added: “I said, ‘look, this is going to be fun’. But again, it’s not an easy job. Like, if you want to be a performer, this is probably one of the hardest bits of performing because when you’re on a stage, you’ve got the lights and the lights will block out the audience.
Saul Murphy with his daughter Neve when she was younger(Image: Saul Murphy)
“The audience here is right in front of you. You can’t hide. And you can’t rest on your laurels because every audience is different because all children are different.”
Although this year will be a heartwarming milestone for Saul and his family, having worked in Christmas entertainment for more than a decade, he has many wonderful memories from entertaining children from across the region.
He said: “There’s the bits where a kid’s made Santa’s face leak, when they’d lost a parent. You know, that was brought up. And it was like, ‘oh, God, I didn’t expect that’. That’s a moment I’ve been caught off guard.
“A child that had lost their parents and when it was like, you know, ‘what do you want for Christmas?’ And obviously they want their parents. We try to make the setting as relaxed where the kids can, I suppose, open up. Because when the kids speak to you, they’re still speaking in front of the whole room.
“You do get those kids that are overexcited and do some silly things, which is brilliant. I remember when it was the flossing? I’m dabbing. So every year, it’s great. In the past, we’ve had ‘come on, let’s dab!’ And we all dab, and we all floss, and we get the kids up. Or you get the kids to do the cool poses for the photographs.
“But all I can say is, every year there are standout moments which are either going to make you cry or make you laugh out loud because kids are so unpredictable. And sometimes we don’t give them enough credit for their imagination.”
More information on Storytime with Santa can be found on Liverpool City Hall’s website.