Despite the safety advice swimmers still took to the sea at Felixstowe today for a Christmas Day dip.

Although the official event, which is organised by St Elizabeth Hospice, was cancelled after safety concerns from Felixstowe Volunteer Coastal Patrol, people donned their favourite festive costumes to take a dip.

People dressed up as Santa, Christmas presents, elves, clowns and turkeys were seen braving the cold at the coast today.

Some animals even took part in the event with dogs seen wearing bow ties and tinsels.

Andrea Friend went into the sea and said: "I did the Christmas Day dip for St Elizabeth Hospice as my husband was treated there three and a half years ago.

"He passed away in the hospice so it is a charity that is quite close to my heart.

"I raised some money so I felt like I wanted to do something today because I had been sponsored to do it.

"It wasn't too bad going in, it wasn't as cold as I thought it would be but once you got in there because the waves were quite big it did feel a little bit dangerous."

In a statement organisers of the event said they were "sad to announce" the Christmas Day Dip was postponed but were advised to do following safety advice from Felixstowe Volunteer Coastal Patrol.

They said in a statement: "As we are not cancelling the challenge, your registration will automatically be rolled over to the new date once we have confirmed it.

"We shall be in touch with an update soon by email.

"Normally we do not offer refunds, however as this is a unique situation we are happy to refund your registration fee if you cannot make the new date.

"More details will be included in the next notification."