Porirua Santa has his sack stolen in the lead up to Christmas

Santa, aka Chris Winchester, takes an "elfie" with his Christmas helper, Tyrone. Photo/ supplied

Santa's had his sack stolen right before Christmas, but he's still feeling jolly.

Chris Winchester, aka Santa at Porirua's North City mall, has the community rallying around him after his bag, which contained his work Macbook and wallet, were stolen two Sundays ago.

He had been helping out a friend by working as a volunteer extra for a short film when the green room, which was supposed to be secured, was broken into.

Three bags were stolen, including Winchester's which contained his wallet and laptop.

A raft of creative work, including a film he was editing and a script he had been working on, was on the laptop.

A Givealittle page has been set up and multiple people have offered to send him replacement laptops in the event his insurance doesn't come through.

Local woman Tracey Steel set up a Givealittle page after seeing his wife post in a community Facebook group about the theft.

"This guy is always helping others out, locals, kids, schools, mates, anyone who needs it," she wrote on Givealittle.

"They are even selling off household items to try and cover Christmas and New Year and it just sucks."

Winchester told the Herald the page's creation and the response to it had been "humbling" and "astonishing".

"People have been incredibly generous. Some anonymous donor gave $200."

So far nearly $1000 has been raised.

"I'm very touched by it," he said.

"It's lovely that people care and I feel very grateful. In the spirit of the season it would be ungracious of me not to accept because people are giving stuff."

He didn't want to make too big a deal out of what had happened.

"Nobody got hurt, there was no violence, it was just a burglary," he said.

If the money donated exceeded what he needed to cover his insurance excess and other claim costs, Winchester said he would make sure the other people who had their things stolen were helped out too.

He said he would also discuss with donors about putting any extra money back into the local arts scene.

Winchester, who has been Santa in the Wellington suburb of Porirua for the past four years, said most of his work had been backed up so he had only lost a few pages of a script he had been writing.

The worst thing was losing his wallet, which contained a silver guitar pick of huge sentimental value.

"It's a little silver guitar pick given to me by my best man when I was his best man."

The pick was engaged and he had flown back home to the United Kingdom for the wedding.

Winchester, whose 10-year-old daughter is still herself a Santa believer, loved playing the part at Christmas.

"I love being Santa, the little kids are great," he said.

"From the moment you step out of the dressing room till the moment you get back in you are Santa."

Going into Santa-mode had even helped following the theft, because it gave him something else to think about.

"I got about an hour's sleep [the night of the theft] and then I had to get up and be Santa again," he said.

"The show must go on you know."

To donate to Winchester, you can follow this link: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help4chrisakasanta