CONCERN over the influx of new housing developments in East Lothian has been a topic of keen conversation in recent times, as fears have been raised about the impact on traffic, schools and infrastructure.

But 50 years ago, children in Haddington had a very different worry on their mind, as the first new modern houses arrived with central heating.

The headline ‘What Happens To Santa When There is No Chimney?’ captured the concerns of every child in the town in 1966, with the demise of open fire places.

This is how The Haddingtonshire Courier reported on the issue:

'Santa is going to be faced with one of the biggest problems of his ever-lasting life tomorrow night – how to get into houses that have no chimneys.

When Haddington Town Council gaily went ahead, erecting Abbott’s View housing scheme, did they give Santa a thought?

Did the architect who designed the houses with that most modern convenience – central heating – wonder just how Santa was going to come down a chimney that was not there?

Now, wide-eyed children are wondering just how Santa is going to go about things.

Of course, the solution is really quite simple – Santa will carefully remove the cover from the central heating vent, squeeze his way through a foot-wide aperture and plummet down the inside of the wall until he hits the heating plant.

Another snag for Santa: Will he have the crowbar necessary to open the floor-level vent to get out?

And at the end of it all, will he be able to find the stockings? After all, just where do you hang a Christmas stocking in a house with no chimney?

Opinions varied among the ever-hopeful youngsters of Haddington.

Five-year-old Caroline Brown feels sure that Santa will find a way into her house at 25 Abbot’s View: ‘I am going to put my stocking on the heater and he is going to have to knock the bottom out to get in. He’s going to have to be terribly thin.’ Her classmate Eileen Johnston, 3 Abbot’s View, thinks she has the answer: ‘Santa is just going to come through our door and I am going to leave my stocking on a chair so he will see it when he comes in.’ Adelle Hamilton, also five, believes Santa will have to resort to criminal damage, saying: “He is going to have to smash the window at my house.”

And one little boy was indignant over the whole situation, revealing: ‘We used to have a chimney, but my daddy blocked it up. He is just going to have to knock a wee hole in it.’ Meanwhile, Eileen Johnston worried that Santa would never get in through the new central heating system. She said: ‘Santa is so fat he will not get through our flue. I am going to leave a biscuit for him and open the door.’'