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Annual visitor in cavalier charms at first: that man welcomed in (6,9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

father christmas

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'man welcomed in' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?

'annual visitor in cavalier charms at first' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'at' could be 'her' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'her' is found within the answer.
'first' could be 'ist' and 'ist' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'charms' is 'chrmas' which is present in the left over letters.
The remaining letters 'fat' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'that' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for father christmas that I've seen before include "he'll be sacked" , "man with gifts" , "present supremo" , "Santa!" , "late December he's busy" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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