How you can meet Father Christmas at Kettering shopping centre and raise money for hospice

Youngsters will be able to meet Father Christmas in Kettering as part of an experience which is raising money for the town’s Cransley Hospice.

The Newlands Shopping Centre and Kettering Town Council are putting on the Meet Santa Experience, with the main man himself available during weekends at the shopping centre from Saturday, December 2.

He will be ready and waiting at the Elf Station to receive letters and have photos taken with youngsters, while the elves will help children write a letter to Santa and send it to the North Pole using magic reindeer dust.

In the elves’ workshop youngsters can then make a Christmas craft to take home ad afterwards meet Santa and have a photo taken with the sleigh and Rudolph.

There is a £2 charge per child which this year goes to Cransley Hospice.

Cllr Craig Skinner (Con), chairman of the council’s markets and events committee, said: “We are so pleased that Father Christmas will be coming to town this Christmas. I hope everyone is on his good list – and is ready to tell him what they want this year.”

Scott Edwards, from the Newlands Shopping Centre Centre, said: “The Elf Station is really good fun and everyone gets a chance to meet Santa and take home a Christmas creation.

“As well as the regular sessions we are dedicating a day to relaxed sessions – for anyone with autism or sensory processing issues – where noise will be reduced and it will be a calmer environment. This will be on Sunday, December 10.”

The Elf Station will be open from 10am to 4pm on December 2, 3, 9, 10, 16 and 17 and from December 21 to 23.

There’s no need to book – just turn up at the the Newlands Shopping Centre in the unit next to Poundland.