Hays Travel, which has taken over Thomas Cook’s 555 former shops, wants to use the promotion to thank customers for their support over the past few weeks.

Santa’s virtual sleigh will be visiting 24 branches across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on Thursday and Friday (28-29 November) to drop off gifts such as holiday vouchers, cruises, hampers and theatre tickets. The star prize is a family trip to visit Santa in Lapland on 11 December.

Irene Hays, Hays Travel’s joint owner, said: “We wanted to say thanks again to everyone for the tremendous support we’ve had and it’s great to be able to extend our festive competition to include everyone.

“You can also pop into our new branches any time to say hello – there will always be a cheery welcome there.”

Santa’s virtual sleigh is using the hashtag #HaysHolidaySleigh for posts on Twitter and Instagram – each time the number of posts reaches a certain level, somebody wins a prize and Santa moves on to the next Hays branch until the Lapland trip is won with the post that flies the sleigh to the final shop.