Santa will be at the Okotoks Marketsquare Christmas Festival this weekend, helping raise funds for a great cause.

He'll be posing for photos with the young and young-at-heart, with proceeds supporting the Okotoks Food Bank.

Okotoks Food Bank Executive Director Sheila Hughes says the event is a significant fundraiser, helping to supplement hampers with nutritious fresh food.

"As well as the Santa photos, one dollar from each of the admissions is donated to us by the ladies of Marketsquare, very kindly, so we're very appreciative of that," Hughes explains. "This helps us with our fresh food program at the food bank. The non-perishable food donations are wonderful, but it's really important for us to be able to continue to provide wholesome, fresh food for our families."

 Hughes says that Santa's workshop promises to be something to see this year.

"We're excited to have Country Living and Garden Centre back doing Santa's workshop," she says. "Rumour has it that Santa's sleigh is going to be there, so it's really nice that Santa has decided to bring that along before he has to get it ship-shape for Christmas Eve."

Photos with Santa will be available all three of days that the market runs, November 10, 11 and 12. However, Hughes says there will be a slightly later start to the photos on Remembrance Day.

"One thing we want people to know, is that although the market opens at 10 a.m. on Saturday, November 11th, Santa will not be arriving until noon," she points out. "He is going to be attending a Remembrance Day ceremony, so we wanted to make sure he had time to do that."

A digital image of visits with Santa, taken by Okotoks photographer Stacey Bond Photography, costs $30.

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