EXTENDED opening hours, a live nativity scene and a farmers' market are set to help Castlepoint to its busiest ever Christmas.

Bosses at the shopping centre are "cautiously optimistic" of improving on last December's figures, when a record 520,000 cars of shoppers flocked to Castlepoint.

To maximise visitor numbers this year, every store will be opening until 9pm from December 1 so people can beat the crowds by shopping out of peak hours.

From Saturday, December 21, Castlepoint staff will park at the Bishop of Winchester School to free up hundreds of extra car parking spaces for shoppers.

And there will also be a farmers' market on the lower level on Sunday, December 2 and a live nativity scene, complete with animals, from Monday, December 10 to Friday, December 14.

Centre manager Peter Matthews said: "Castlepoint has never done anything like this before. But we wanted to host the farmers' market because Castlepoint is the convenient high street and we want to show what they can buy locally.

"The nativity scene has been done in other shopping centres but never here. We just thought it was something different and a bit more Christmassy than a few lights."

He said the Bournemouth centre was on track to record 4.8million cars of shoppers this year, an increase on last year's 4.6million.

Business approaching the festive period has also been brisk with 97,000 cars visiting Castlepoint in one week in October.

"We're cautiously optimistic about having a successful Christmas period," he said. "The caution is because we don't really yet know what all the interest rate hikes and concerns about debt will have on Christmas spending."