THE First Minister sought to reassure children at today’s briefing after the national clinical director said there is “absolutely no question” of a normal Christmas this year.

Jason Leitch told BBC Radio Scotland that the notion of a traditional festive season is “fiction” and families should get their “digital Christmas ready” as the nation faces coronavirus restrictions over the winter.

At the Scottish Government briefing Nicola Sturgeon stressed it is too early to say what the restrictions will be at the end of December, but reassured children that not all will be lost.

READ MORE: Jason Leitch: 'Absolutely no chance' of a normal Christmas this year

“No, Santa will not be prevented from delivering your presents on Christmas Eve,” she told viewers. “Santa is a key worker and he’s got lots of magic powers that make him safe to do that – so if he’s having to do grotto appearances by Zoom that’s to keep you safe, it’s not that Santa’s at any risk and he’ll be delivering presents across the world as normal.”

The First Minister stressed she wants “as much normality at Christmas as possible”, which is part of the reason Scotland faces tougher restrictions at the moment which aim to drive down infection rates.

However, she added: “I’m not going to stand here and give people false assurances that I don’t know I can deliver.”

Sturgeon added she is “not exempt from the impact of these decisions”.

“And don’t ever think that I’m sitting in room here just deciding ‘ach well, we’ll cancel Christmas or we’ll shut pubs’,” she told the briefing. “You know, I’m a human being. The thought of Christmas without my family upsets me as much as that thought upsets you.”

The National:

She also pointed out that communities across Scotland have already faced restrictions during religious holidays.

Sturgeon went on: “There are people in our country – people in our Jewish community, people in our Muslim community, people in our Sikh and Hindu communities – that have already gone through their equivalents of Christmas under these restrictions.

“So I’m not saying that makes it okay if we can’t have a normal Christmas, it doesn’t, but remember there are many of our fellow Scots who have already gone through these really upsetting important celebrations without the ability to mark them in exactly a normal way.”

The First Minister’s briefing came as 1712 new coronavirus cases were identified across Scotland over the last 24 hours. There were also 17 deaths recorded.