A GLUM Santa told of climate change causing him to lay off elves, alter his sleigh and lose weight as he walked around central Albury on Monday night.
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The not so jolly or rotund Father Christmas led an Extinction Rebellion performance piece along Dean Street with elves for about 40 minutes from 5pm.
Shoppers were bemused as Santa used a loud hailer to give his message as helpers pulled a trailer AKA sleigh carrying two guitarists playing mournfully.
"I had to pimp my sleigh with these wheels because all the ice is melting," he said.
"I was speaking to the Easter Bunny and she said 'all the chocolate's melting'."
Santa said the weather forced him to make elves redundant and "I've lost of lot of weight from worrying".
The climax of the protest saw Santa and his elves chant "if we think it's hot now, it's going to get hotter".
Thurgoona shopper Mary Esler told The Border Mail "is this a protest? I was wondering what it was all about".
"It's definitely different, I like their little cart," she added.
Gerogery consumer Sam O'Brien was also stunned, saying "it's crazy, I didn't expect it today".
MAMA gallery exhibitions co-ordinator Jules Boag thought it was "cool".
"I think it's taking some action," he said.
"People just don't want to talk about it and we need to talk about it."
Santa's embodiment Simon Yates said the stunt was "getting into the Christmas spirit" and delivering a message to politicians.
"We've just had our Prime Minister return from holidaying in Hawaii and affirm there's going to be no shift in terms of his government's completely inadequate action on climate change," Mr Yates said.
"We've been given a serve internationally for using an accounting trick to meet our Paris targets."
About 40 members of Extinction Rebellion, an international climate change protest group which formed a Border branch in October, participated on Monday.
Mr Yates said there would be further public activities in the new year.