Salop Leisure gets into festive spirit

A Shrewsbury leisure business has announced plans for an action-packed series of Christmas events which it hopes will attract thousands of visitors to the town.

Salop Leisure is transforming its caravan and motorhome dealership and its glamping and touring resort, Love2Stay, next door into a Christmas winter wonderland.

Highlights are a 16-metre by nine metre ice rink, a Salop Santa Dash for Severn Hospice and the Shropshire Handmade and Vintage Christmas Fair.

The gift fair kicked off the festive celebrations this weekend when there were up to 60 stalls selling all type of handmade and unique craft and giftware for Christmas.

The weekend also saw the launch of Santa’s Grotto and the appearance of Christmas trees to buy at Love Plants, Salop Leisure’s specialist plants centre.

The grotto will be open every weekend up until Christmas as well as on selected evenings and parents will be able to bring their children to have tea with Santa on selected dates from 3pm to 6pm.

The new Salop Santa Dash, which takes place on Sunday, December 3, is designed to be a fun event for all the family and is being supported by Rybrook MINI Shrewsbury. Runners will have the option to run one or two laps of the 2.5 kilometre course around Salop Leisure and Love2Stay.

A £10 entry fee includes a Santa suit and all the money raised will be donated to Severn Hospice. Entries will be limited to 500 and places will be on a first come basis. 

The new ice rink is located at Love2Stay and will be open to the public who park at Salop Leisure and are then transported on a festive land train to and from the resort. Schools are being invited to send groups of children to enjoy the ice skating and other facilities.

To add to the festive experience, Love Coffee restaurant will be serving up special Christmas treats for visitors and Love Plants will have wreaths, decorations, trees and Christmas gifts on offer from November 25 and throughout December.

Love Fitness at Salop Leisure will also be welcoming members of the public to the boutique fitness studio and purpose-built bootcamp training facility and assault course in the run up to Christmas. They are set to throw down the gauntlet during the Santa Run to discover how many Santas they can get on the assault course.

“We are determined to make Salop Leisure the place to be this Christmas,” said Ed Glover, Salop Leisure’s marketing manager. “We think there is a big need for these Christmas attractions in Shrewsbury which will also ensure that people visiting Love2Stay have a great festive experience.

“Rather than closing in December like some in the caravan industry do, we spend thousands of pounds transforming our business into a winter wonderland and this Christmas is going to be exceptional.

“Christmas is a special time of the year and it’s important that we create some magic for our customers who have young families.”

Picture: Trying out the ice skating rink are Salop Leisure’s marketing manager Ed Glover and Carrie Hughes and Laura Wilde from Pink Pebble Events, organisers of Shropshire Handmade and Vintage Christmas Fair.