A BASINGSTOKE shopping centre is all set for Christmas as its grotto opens this week, ahead of the official launch of the festive countdown.

Festival Place will open its Santa’s grotto on Sunday, November 6 offering a “truly magical” Christmas experience for the family.

Read more: What will happen to derelict Basingstoke retail park now after council refuses planning permission?

The centre has begun decorating ready for the festive period and is set to launch the Christmas countdown on November 19.

The run-up to Christmas will include Mrs Christmas and her merry gang of Christmas Maker Elves as well as music, mince pies, crafting and carolling.

Cheeky elves will be performing random acts of kindness around the shopping centre, from offering free parking, giving out mugs of gingerbread latte, or even paying for a whole basket of shopping at the till.

A winter wonderland forest of life-sized trees decorated by local schoolchildren is set to appear on the lower mall and visitors are invited to take seasonal selfies in the festive glade.

See also: Free spectacular light display to celebrate Diwali in Basingstoke rescheduled 

The centre is also running a festive-themed train - the Festive Express - and a Christmas crafty corner with lots of free family fun, making sustainable gifts to take away.

The train, which departs from the upper level between 10am and 4pm, costs £3 a go or £10 for four people.

Happy Wrappy is also returning this year where shoppers can have gifts wrapped in aid of St Michael’s Hospice.

“With free family crafty fun, our pop up ‘communi-tree’ forests, as well as our grotto and Festive Express, there is something at Festival Place for all ages,” said Emily Palmer, Festival Place head of marketing.

She added: “It will be six weeks of joyful festive fun – Festival Place is a full-on family day out with our huge range of top-brand retailers, great leisure offering and pick of restaurants helping to make this year’s Christmas one to remember.”

Bookings for the grotto are now open on the shopping centre’s website, costing £5 per child plus a £1 online booking fee per transaction.

The grotto, run by Great Grottos, will open until December 24 on the upper level next to Starbucks. It will be closed daily between 1pm and 1.40pm.

The centre has decided to offer six-weeks of festive fun instead of an official light switch-on event as was tradition up until 2018 when its festive event hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Visitors described the switch-on as “chaotic” and an “absolute shambles”, claiming there was “nothing Christmassy” as organisers failed to provide a tree or Santa Claus, instead choosing to light up a giant owl.

It was not the first time a light switch-on in Basingstoke has caused chaos. In 1999 TV hardman Ross Kemp switched on the lights drawing an unexpectedly large crowd of 10,000 people.

Four people were taken to hospital in a crush and the show had to be abandoned.