A MAGICAL walk through a wintry woodland is part of a Christmas experience set to put Northwich on the map.

Blakemere Village, in Sandiway, hopes to attract thousands of visitors to its Christmas Woodland this year, which is its new take on a traditional Santa's grotto.

This year visitors will experience festive theatre outdoors as they are guided through the woods to see Father Christmas by a host of Yuletide characters.

"This is an experience you can't get anywhere else in the north west," said Joanna Williams, marketing and design manager at Blakemere Village.

"It something we want families to come to every single year because it's part of their tradition.

"It's a full day out."

The production in the woods is an hour and a quarter long and the ticket price also includes a craft activity for the children, a gift for the adults each, a chance to meet Snowy the owl and his friends, a traditional carousel ride and a ride on the land train, Santa's Express.

The decision was made to alter the festive celebrations at Blakemere after the grotto grew too big, attracting 2,000 children in 2014.

Joanna said: "Even though our grotto has been over the years more and more popular we decided after last year's queues it was starting to become unmanageable and the wait time was up to three hours on some weekends.

"This is detrimental to site as you can imagine so this year we are changing it totally."

Blakemere Village is running the Christmas Woodland in conjunction with Steve Birchall, from Cheshire Outdoors, and Hope Street theatre company.

Joanna said: "The idea is that this year we would like to attract 4,000 people, we have the capacity, and it's not just for children, it's for adults too.

"Within the next two or three years the potential is that we could get 20,000 people through the doors."

She added: "Come wrapped up for the outdoors, put your wellies on and bring your hat, and we encourage all children to bring their letter to Santa."

For tickets, priced £22.50, and more information, visit blakemerevillage.com.