--- title: Inflatable Santa Claus Stops Traffic Causing a Hold Up description: An inflatable Santa Claus got loose and floated onto the road causing traffic and laughs. canonical: https://time.com/5464944/santa-stops-traffic/ author: Elaine Selna article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-27T21:33:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:12.235Z og:title: Inflatable Santa Claus Causes a Major Traffic Jam og:description: The runaway Christmas inflatable came loose from a house's front yard og:url: https://time.com/5464944/santa-stops-traffic/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c93f56ce5e7ee1b/6989400a97cdffb7976b6d68/infaltable-santa-claus-uk-traffic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 6406 og:image:height: 3603 og:image:alt: infaltable-santa-claus-uk-traffic og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Inflatable Santa Claus Causes a Major Traffic Jam twitter:description: The runaway Christmas inflatable came loose from a house's front yard twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c93f56ce5e7ee1b/6989400a97cdffb7976b6d68/infaltable-santa-claus-uk-traffic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Massive Inflatable Santa Claus Trying to Get an Early Start Causes Merriest Traffic Jam Ever > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=eed6be9d-a743-445a-848f-275abbaa4a26&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Elaine Selna](https://time.com/author/elaine-selna/) ## Elaine Selna Nov 27, 2018 9:33 PM UTC  Kara Grubis—Shutterstock / Kara Grubis by [Elaine Selna](https://time.com/author/elaine-selna/) ## Elaine Selna Nov 27, 2018 9:33 PM UTC Looks like [Santa](http://time.com/5072619/santa-tracker-christmas-eve/) got stuck in traffic trying to do his job this holiday season. The [BBC reported](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-46362708) Tuesday that an inflatable Santa Claus got loose and floated onto Cromwell Road in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire in the U.K. One of the people caught in this festive holiday traffic was taxi driver and a father-of-three from Peterborough, Muhammad Fareed. He managed to get footage of [St. Nick bouncing](http://time.com/5458396/vermont-walmart-layaway-items/) around other drivers. “It was massive, bigger than my seven-seater car,” Fareed said, “It was one of the more unusual reasons to be stuck in traffic.” Fareed said that the runaway Christmas inflatable came loose from a house’s front yard on Cromwell Road. “I saw it wobble and then come down on to the road – it did raise a smile,” Fareed said. > [](https://twitter.com/itvanglia/status/1067447146495000577) By the time he got close enough to the Santa Claus, two men were already trying to drag it off the road back to where it belonged. Even the AA made sure to alert people in the area about the unusual sight that was causing the unusual traffic by saying the road was “partially blocked – and slow traffic due to a large inflatable Santa on B198 Cromwell Road both ways in Wisbech”. Though the road is now clear, people couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the situation on Twitter. > [](https://twitter.com/RobSetchell/status/1067447880145866753) The Santa even provided comedic relief to the current political situation in the U.K. > [](https://twitter.com/Emp%5FSolicitor/status/1067515359933145092) Runaway inflatable Santa Claus puts a whole new meaning on Bad Santa. > [](https://twitter.com/ODemirkaplan/status/1067520427084390400) Seems like Wisbech is now a popular destination after Santa and the Duchess of Cornwall came to visit. > [](https://twitter.com/jennywhojenny/status/1067517205317861377) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5464944/santa-stops-traffic/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5464944/santa-stops-traffic/"},"headline":"Massive Inflatable Santa Claus Trying to Get an Early Start Causes Merriest Traffic Jam Ever","datePublished":"2018-11-27T21:33:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:12.235Z","description":"The runaway Christmas inflatable came loose from a house's front yard","url":"https://time.com/5464944/santa-stops-traffic/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Bizarre","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c93f56ce5e7ee1b/6989400a97cdffb7976b6d68/infaltable-santa-claus-uk-traffic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Elaine Selna","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/elaine-selna/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c93f56ce5e7ee1b/6989400a97cdffb7976b6d68/infaltable-santa-claus-uk-traffic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"infaltable-santa-claus-uk-traffic","caption":"Inflatable Santa Claus","creditText":"Kara Grubis—Shutterstock / Kara Grubis","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5464944/santa-stops-traffic/","name":"Massive Inflatable Santa Claus Trying to Get an Early Start Causes Merriest Traffic Jam Ever"}}]}] ```