A FARM is getting into the spirit of Christmas by transforming hay bales into a festive display.
The bales have been turned into Santa, a reindeer and snowman at East Skichen Farm in Arbroath, Angus.
They were created by owner Fleur Baxter to cheer up passing motorists and have proved so popular some drivers are detouring to take a look.
Fleur, 43, spent most of Sunday creating the masterpieces with her two children. Her husband, Campbell, was on hand with a forklift to move the bales into place.
She said: “We were just getting people into the spirit of Christmas. I wouldn’t have ordinarily done this but we thought it would be a nice idea.
“They haven’t been up for long but we have already had people stopping along the road to take pictures.
“They are delightfully tacky and something just a bit fun. They’ll need to come down before January though, because we’ll be needing to plough the field for potatoes.”
The characters have proved so popular that Fleur has even installed lights around Santa so that people can see him when the sun goes down.
She brought the figures to life with the use of spray paint and some extra props. The snowman’s nose is in fact a stolen cone, his hat is a part from an electrical reel, and the sleigh was made by a local joiner.
Fleur admitted that she is “not completely happy” with Rudolph’s antlers, which are made out of wires. There are plans to replace them with real antlers provided by a local gamekeeper this weekend.
This is not the first time the family has created characters from hay bales. Last month minions, the loveable characters from the children’s film Despicable Me, appeared in the field.
