The National Trust has responded to "dropping Father Christmas for Mrs Claus at Santa’s Grottos as festivities go woke".

Lacock Abbey, a country house in Wiltshire which is also a National Trust site, has had Mother Christmas at their festive events for several years now.

But that has now caused outrage online and on sites such as GB News.

They claimed that: "The National Trust is swapping out Santa for his wife," but it appears that is not the case.

They spoke to Brits who insisted that classic traditions should not be meddled with.

Donald Gomel, 42, from Glasgow, told them: “From the Victorian age we’ve had Father Christmas and now we want to introduce Mother Christmas. It’s just mad.”

English teacher Sam Issa, 45, from Wigan, added: “For hundreds of years kids have got their presents from Santa. Why ruin a perfectly good ­tradition? The world’s gone mad.

Now, the National Trust has responded.

Celia Richardson, Director of Communications at National Trust, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: "This year our properties will host 58 Santa’s grottoes and 2 Mother Christmas story times.

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"The Mother Christmas reading events are not new. The world may have gone mad but I don’t think this has been caused by 2 children’s reading events."

Others in the comments were quick to point out the overreaction. 

One said: "Surely two children’s reading events like these will cause our Great Britain to slip into the icy Atlantic Ocean?"

Another commented: "Given the nightmare it must be scheduling Santa to get to 58 grottoes all over the country, I think it’s fair enough to let Mrs Claus to take up a bit of the slack"