Tong Garden Centre will mark the opening of Santa's grotto and its new pop-up Polar Bear Café with a two-day family event that begins on Saturday November 17th.

The team at Tong are celebrating the festive family fun weekend with a reduced price of £10 for the 30 minute magical journey through Santa's new grotto together with a packed schedule of activities for all the family, including festive entertainers, face painting, charity donkey rides and an appearance by Mrs Claus in the Food Hall.

Festive ‘Merry Makers' will be taking to the Christmas Cabaret stage at the Tong Lane centre for hourly performances from 11am on both Saturday and Sunday to show visitors the wonder of the start of Christmas at Tong.

The new for 2018 pop-up Polar Bear Café will feature sharing ice creams and slushies and there will be speciality hot chocolate and mugs of soup to accompany hot dogs and sandwiches.

The team at Tong are anticipating the first of many busy pre-Christmas weekends, Marketing Manager Jo Dales said.

"We're delighted that many families join us at Tong to mark the start of the festive period and are excited to host a fun weekend to celebrate the opening of the grotto and our pop-up Polar Bear Café that will be serving themed food including Big Bear and Little Bear hot dogs right up until Christmas Eve.

"In addition to the special festive family fun weekend grotto price of £10, all of the children's grotto tickets will be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Tong gift voucher.

"The festive family fun weekend is just the start of Tong's wonderful journey through November and December that includes festive tasting events in the Food Hall every weekend until Christmas."

Hot food, snacks and drinks will be also be available in the Restaurant throughout the weekend.