Everyone knows Father Christmas and his reindeer love home-made treats the best, which is why, on December 20, Bournemouth’s multi-award-winning restaurant WestBeach will be giving little Christmas elves the chance to bake for the big guy!

Taking place between 3pm and 5pm, the Christmas crafts and cookery workshops will provide hours of festive fun.

And the best bit is little helpers can take their freshly baked delights home to leave for Father Christmas on Christmas Eve – that’s if they don’t mysteriously disappear before the big night of course!

Sessions cost £8 on the door or £6 if booked in advance. To secure a place call WestBeach on 01202 587785.


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At only 24, Tony Wright must surely be one of the youngest restaurant owners in the country. For the last seven months, he and his chef Petre Svetinsky have been causing something of a sensation at La Stalla restaurant in Wallisdown. Why not pop along to this friendly, up-and-coming Italian restaurant over the festive period?


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Three seems to be the magic number for Bournemouth restaurant The Print Room, which is toasting triple servings of sweet success.

Having just taken their 3,300th Christmas booking in the three-week period running up to Christmas, the restaurant is also celebrating being honoured with three prestigious awards – all won within a month of each other.

At a glittering celebration of Bournemouth’s £440 million travel and tourism industry, the venue was crowned Bournemouth Tourism’s Taste of the Year.

The ambitious £2 million renovation of the former Daily Echo print room was also chosen as Creative Project of the Year at the Dorset Business Awards in recognition of the high-level investment, risk and dynamic vision required.

And to complete a hat trick of awards, The Print Room beat global projects from the UK’s design elite to bring home Best New Interior in the hugely coveted British Design Awards.

Managing director Andy Price says it’s no mean feat.

“When we undertook the project we had it in mind that we wanted to take a dramatic and historic space and sympathetically transform it into an exceptional environment matched with exceptional food offerings.

"To have won these awards is recognition that our hard work and determination are paying off and that’s also reflected in a healthy level of bookings over the festive period.”