Manchester City: Joe Hart Wears Santa Beard, Wraps Presents (Video)

On the pitch, Manchester City's fortunes have suffered in recent weeks with their early departure from the UEFA Champions League and a league loss to rivals Manchester United.

Off the pitch, the club and its players keep churning out wildly entertaining Christmas video after wildly entertaining Christmas video.

The latest is no exception. Earlier this week, City gave us a glimpse of Carlos Tevez telling Mario Balotelli why people think he's daft (video here, and yes, you want to see it). Now we see goalkeeper Joe Hart wrapping Christmas gifts while "dressed up" as Santa Claus.

Why the quotation marks? Well, Hart's Santa costume is basically a fake white beard and…nothing else. He is wearing a Santa-esque cap, but its main color is light blue, an obvious nod to City's own colors.

In fairness, Santa's traditional colors look dangerously similar to Manchester United's, so that's a non-starter. Wearing red in the video would pretty much amount to light treason in the eyes of some fans.

Still, the next time he's on the pitch, Hart might as well embrace the whole Santa thing. First, though, he would need to gain at least 50 pounds, recruit a team of reindeer and start screaming "Ho, ho, ho" maniacally at any oncoming strikers. Imagine their confusion.

Fortunately for us, Balotelli makes a cameo later in the video as Hart attempts to keep wrapping presents. For once, Balotelli acts somewhat sane, the way a normal person might. Well done.

Finally, Hart slathers some glitter on his beard and says, "Decent!" And why not?

All in all, this latest Man City masterpiece is a wonderful choice for our Set Piece Video of the Day for this Tuesday.

Enjoy. It's decent!

(Video: MCFCOfficial)

Follow @MikeCummings37