The festive season has come to a North East retail park after it officially began its celebrations.

Visitors to Teesside Park will be greeted with a range of Christmas-themed fun – including a mini market located between Mamas and Papas and USC.

This will include a variety of food and drinks stalls offering loaded fries, churros, and a swing grill.

The centre will also host a fundraising event with charity partner, A Way Out, on Saturday (December 2).

Catherine Furlong, centre director at Teesside Park, said: “Christmas is a magical time and we have plenty of festivities for our visitors to enjoy this year, with the new introduction of our mini markets which I’m sure will be very popular.

“A Way Out is our charity partner and we know just how important our fundraising efforts are to them, especially over the Christmas period.

"The charity is such a fantastic support to those it works with in our community, so we’re very proud to dedicate part of our seasonal celebrations to helping them continue that support.” 

The shopping centre is also launching a ‘giving tree’ where visitors can donate essential items to the charity. It will be located in the reception area of the Hello building.

The management suite will welcome a performance from New Day Singers choir, a visit from Star Wars characters, host face painting for little ones, and provide a helpful gift wrapping service and sweet treats from local businesses Bendelow’s Kitchen and Chocs Away.

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Teesside Park is open 9am to 8pm, Monday to Friday, 9am to 7pm, Saturday and Sunday 10.30am to 4.30pm, with selected stores open until 9pm throughout December.

Teesside Park has introduced a new measures to help with car park traffic management this festive season.

New bus routes from Hartlepool, Norton, Middlesbrough and Billingham via Stagecoach bus routes 36, 37 and 38 are also now available.