A LOVE of Christmas which has continued to glow since childhood has fuelled the creation of a little piece of Lapland in Saddleworth.

Ben Bogan's dream to offer youngsters - and parents - a truly magical encounter with Father Christmas has finally been realised with the opening of Santa's Village Saddleworth.

Disenchanted with a succession of grim grottos and fake-feeling festive family encounters when Ben's daughter, Summer, was born nearly two years ago he and partner Amelia Cunliffe - also a festive fanatic - decided up make their Christmas wishes come true.

Ben - who runs a children's entertainment business with Amelia - began constructing his festive fantasy in the summer, building log cabins from scratch inside a premises at Saddleworth Business Centre, in Huddersfield Road, Delph.

He says he's worked on the project - which began welcoming little visitors at the end of November - every day since in a bid to capture the true magic of Christmas and judging by the reviews they've been getting they seem to have the experience all wrapped up!

Ben - who outside of the festive season is known as Bouncy Ben - and Amelia, both from Shaw, have gone to great lengths to make visits to Santa's Village Saddleworth as authentic as possible from auditioning the most talented and convincing performers to a hand-stitched costume for the man himself and leather scroll naughty and nice lists which are added to ahead of each visiting child.

As well as opportunities to share breakfast or supper with Santa and climb inside a huge snow globe, they've also opened a 'cinema' featuring festive favourites from Elf to Polar Express and grown-up showings such as Love Actually.

"I absolutely love Christmas and I've always planned in my head to do something one day.

"It all started when I watched Santa Claus: The Movie when I was a kid. I've been hooked ever since.

"I've been to many grottos in and around Manchester and none of them seemed to have that special magic.

"When Summer was born she kind of fast-forwarded my plans to get on and do it so she can grow up with the magic of Christmas and enjoy it with her friends.

"We were looking for a venue for around two years but nothing was really suitable. When this place came up it seemed perfect so we decided to plough our life-savings into it and its been a huge success so far.

"As far as we're aware there's nothing like it around.

"Kids and adults alike just love it. Our Santa looks so much like the real thing even the grown-ups are convinced and we've created him in the style of the Miracle on 34th Street Santa.

"We had a 10-year-old visit the other week and I literally heard him say as he came through the door that he didn't believe.

"He honestly came out saying he did believe and his mum was so thrilled. She said you've literally given us the gift of another year of magic and that's amazing."