Apparently, more than 100 million people have used the Portable North Pole service – which every year, lets parents sign up to send their children personalised video messages from Father Christmas.

(Well, a plump man with a white beard in a red outfit hired in for the job, but don’t let on…)

The company behind Portable North Pole is now preparing for Christmas 2015, with its website and mobile apps – iOS and Android – set to return for another year.

As before, the service will be free on one level, but parents will be able to choose to pay for a “Premium” video message, with seven new storylines and “Santa’s verdict” on whether the child receiving it is on his Nice or Naughty list this year.

Portable North Pole will also be selling a “Gold Pass” for people who want to be able to send as many premium messages to friends and family as they want, as well as downloading the resulting videos in HD quality.

This year, too, PNP will be giving 5% of its revenues from online purchases to British hospitals. We’re waiting to find out how much the premium messages and gold pass will cost: for now, parents can sign up on the website to get an alert once the 2015 version is available.