Hundreds from the Te Puke community came out to celebrate Christmas at Te Puke's Christmas in the Park last Saturday.

The entertainment and fun started at 3pm and carried on until 7pm with Christmas market stalls, Christmas wrapping, food, kids' activities and even Santa making a special appearance.

'It was lovely to see community members and organisations come together with healthy collaboration across our district,” says Vector Group Charitable Trust founder Steve Fawcett.

The event, run by eight volunteers was held at Jubilee Park and supported Empowerment Foodbank, with people asked to bring a can of food or non-perishable food item for the foodbank appeal.

Children enjoyed the Monsters Inc. bouncy castle, the visit by the fire service with a truck to explore, decorating bags and plenty of other activities. Local clubs made good use of the opportunity to raise funds for themselves too such as the popular cake stall run by the Te Puke Swimming Club.

It was truly a community effort, and the organisers appreciated all the work from performers, stall holders and volunteers, taking to their Facebook page to write 'we feel the 12 hours on our feet was well worth all the pain and all the worth it seeing all those smiles and joy.”