Duke and Duchess of Cambridge play Christmas elves for children of RAF families

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have taken up new positions as Santa’s little helpers today, as they prepare to hand deliver Christmas presents for the children of service men and women fighting ISIS overseas.

The Duke and Duchess, who have three children of their own, hosted a Christmas party for RAF families at Kensington Palace, inviting their young visitors to join in activities from cracker making to snow globe decorating.

Asking children to bring any presents or letters they would like to give their mothers and fathers serving overseas, the Duke and Duchess will gather them from a special post box to hand deliver tomorrow.

On Wednesday morning, they will fly to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, where military personnel from RAF  Coningsby and RAF Marham are deployed to support Op Shader, the UK's contribution to the ongoing campaign against Isis.

There, they will personally hand over letters and gifts from children to their parents, delivering a message of thanks for their service throughout the Christmas period.

The party was attended by around 200 guests, including one very special visitor: Father Christmas.

Children, joined by the Duke and Duchess, were offered the chance to move around stalls for stocking decorating, cracker making, snow globe decorating and creating Christmas party kits.

There will also be a photo booth and a post box so guests can take pictures and send messages to their loved ones in Cyprus.

Palace aides said the Duke and Duchess particularly wished to deliver a message of support to deployed personnel and to acknowledge and honour the fact many are away from their families at this time of the year.

During the festive period there will be 11,000 sailors, soldiers, airmen and marines deployed on operations.

Service personnel have been sent on 30 operations in 35 countries across the globe from Somalia and South Sudan to Kuwait and Ukraine.

The Duke is Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire which is home to Typhoon squadrons which deploy to Cyprus and fly operations in support of Op Shader, the UK's contribution to the ongoing campaign against Isis.

They work alongside 31 Squadron, a Tornado GR4 unit based at Raf Marham in Norfolk, which is also involved with the campaign.

RAF Akrotiri is the home of the Cyprus Operations Support Unit which provides joint support to British Forces Cyprus and operations in the region to protect the UK's strategic interests.