FOR someone who started working on festive flick Get Santa back in January, it's no wonder actor Rafe Spall has given this Christmas such careful consideration.

He's not, for instance, bothering with a stocking on the fireplace this year.

"I have a skip at the end of my bed," dead pans the 31-year-old, known for his roles in One Day, Life Of Pi and I Give It A Year. "I go one bigger than a sack. I get my skip delivered and it usually gets filled."

Whether his 'skip' is filled with socks or the latest version of his best ever present, a handheld Dyson dustbuster ("I use it every day, it's changed my life") Spall was given a memorable gift while he was on the set of the film, which is released on Friday, December 5.

"I enjoyed all the scenes where we fly a sleigh," recalls the father-of-two, who is the son of Mr Turner star Timothy Spall. "There's not many times in your life when you can say you've flown a sleigh. That was a thrill."

Thrilling too was the chance to work with Iris actor Jim Broadbent, who takes the title role. A fitting role for someone who Spall reckons is "related to Santa".

Likewise, Spall's 10-year-old co-star Kit Connor, who plays his son Tom, was just as wide-eyed.

"I thought he really was Santa," exclaims the schoolboy actor, who has also starred in Casualty and Sky1 comedy series Chickens. I walked into the room on set, saw him and thought, 'Where's Jim?'"

While Broadbent is the hero from the get-go, Spall plays hapless dad Steve, who's a different kind of victor.

After spending two years locked away in the slammer, Steve is desperate to do right by his nine-year-old son Tom. So when Santa crash lands in London and finds himself doing porridge in Steve's old prison, it's up to father and son, plus a few trusty reindeer, to break Santa out of jail and make sure he's in his sleigh in time to deliver presents on Christmas Eve.

Far-fetched? Maybe. But Broadbent immediately bought into the magic of the story.

"Within the film, Santa has his own reality, which is unique and special and beyond anything any of the other characters have," explains the actor who previously voiced Santa in 2011 Christmas animation Arthur Christmas.

"Everyone else lives in the real world and they are confronted by this weird being. They have one job, of how to react to this strange man, and I have another job of how to consistently be Santa as we know him."

And Bristolian director Christopher Smith, who also cast Broadchurch star Jodie Whittaker as Tom's mum Alison, Warwick Davis as prisoner Sally and Stephen Graham as the streetwise Barber, had yet another job in showing Santa in a new light.

"My favourite scene is where Jim Broadbent has cornrows in his hair and is walking out [in the prison corridor] to Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A," chuckles Smith, who spent four years "in Christmas" working on the film.

"The idea was to have Jim as this utter innocent, going to prison and gradually learning to be cool. I wanted him to have that street look which is ghetto LA. When he turned up, he had this blue shirt on, so he looked like an old country singer!"

While Santa's inmates have to adjust to seeing the cheery festive figure behind bars - and occasionally strutting about in his 'street' threads - in real life, the cast had to acquaint themselves with the animals on set.

"The reindeer were one of the most important things about Get Santa for me," says Connor, who lives in Surrey with his parents and older siblings. "I befriended them. The reindeer that played Dasher was called Combo and we were best friends. It was a really unusual friendship, obviously, but we took a couple of selfies and stuff. He was actually surprisingly good at acting."

"Yeah, it was very truthful. Very truthful..." adds Spall. "He brought something original to the reindeer performance."

Although Spall doesn't go as far as to say he was firm friends with the antlered animals, he was rather taken with them by the end of the shoot.

"They are much smaller and sweeter than you would imagine," says the actor, who's also in the Christmas special of dystopian Channel 4 comedy Black Mirror ("definitely the other side of the Christmas coin to Get Santa").

"They do poo and wee a lot, but that's all right, because I never had to clear it up. That's not in my job description."

While Spall's message is loud and clear, the animals had a unique way of communicating commands on set.

"In one part of the movie, where Dasher actually farted, one of the other reindeers pulled a little stance at the exact right timing, didn't he?" says Connor. "It was perfect."

"He knew when to fart," chips in Spall. "That's one of the most important lessons you can learn as an actor.

Aside from these lessons, though, Get Santa has a lasting legacy for Spall, who has a young daughter, Lena, and son, Rex, with actress wife, Elize du Toit.

"Knowing that my kids are going to be able to watch this film is a really nice thing," smiles the actor, who is spending Christmas with his family "watching a load of rubbish TV and Get Santa on repeat".

And like festive film fan Smith, Spall is hoping to spread some Christmas joy.

"That's the lovely thing about Christmas films - they sustain you," he says.

"They always get you in the mood for Christmas."

FIVE DADS IN FESTIVE FLICKS

n It's A Wonderful Life (1946) - In this rightly adored feel-good flick, depressed dad George Bailey realises how much his actions improved the lives of those around him, just in time to celebrate the festivities with his young family.

n Home Alone (1990) - Pity poor Kevin, played by a cherubic faced Macaulay Culkin, who is stranded in his Illinois mansion all Christmas and beseeched by bird-brained bandits, while his parents swan off to Paris. Thanks Dad!

n Miracle On 34th Street (1994) - This big-hearted remake centres around an unnervingly mature six-year-old girl, whose only wish for Christmas is to have a Dad. Her wish is granted when her mum falls in love with kindly lawyer Bryan who, unlike her mum, believes in Father Christmas.

n Jingle All The Way (1996) - Back when Arnold Schwarzenegger was Mr Showbiz, he played a devoted dad who stopped at nothing to buy his son a Turbo Man for Christmas, in this Nineties family adventure.

nElf (2003) - In this cracker of a film, Will Ferrell plays Buddy, an oversized Elf who is desperate to find his real dad. But far from being the chirpy figure he imagined him to be, Buddy's dad Walter is actually a miserly publisher, whose heart very slowly thaws out throughout the film.