Santa’s grotto has popped up on Grey St, a gingerbread house at Red Square, and oversized Christmas crackers and gift boxes, to encourage a festive feel for the city centre and get more people pounding the CBD pavement before December 25.

Downtown Tauranga, with support of Tauranga City Council, has created the festivities in the CBD to draw people into the city, to ensure families can enjoy a sense of Christmas spirit and give local businesses a pre-Christmas boost following a tough year.

“It’s been a really hard year for local businesses and this activation will support increased vibrancy and ambience, more foot traffic and in turn support an economic boost to the city centre as we lead up to Christmas,” says Downtown Tauranga’s new manager Genevieve Whitson.

A Santa’s grotto complete with a Santa throne, elf cave, reindeer and abundance of Christmas decorations now meets Grey St passers-by – and, of course, Santa and his elf helper all the way from the North Pole!

“Santa will be in his Grotto – at 2 Grey St – from 10am-3pm every Saturday until Christmas – and from 10am-3pm from December 18-22,” says Genevieve.

“People are welcome to take photos on their own phones with Santa.

"The grotto is completely free –because we want as many people as possible to be able to enjoy the festivities in the city centre.”

People can also pop down to Red Square and see the gingerbread house, and relive all the tales of ‘Hansel and Gretel’, for the entire month of December.

Genevieve says it’s been a very collaborative project to bring Christmas to the CBD “and it’s just fantastic to see the children’s eyes light up when they walk into the grotto and see Santa and his elf and see some festive magic Downtown”.

“We are really thankful to council for their support, Pacific Property Fund Ltd for providing space on Grey St, Black Chilli and Balloon Bliss for props and decorating the space, Quality Building Services for installing the gingerbread house, crackers and gift-boxes, and Event Production Services for lighting fittings.”

Now Genevieve hopes the community will come out to see the festivities and enjoy the CBD.

“It’s a chance to support Downtown Tauranga businesses and to see the city centre with some Christmas flare!”