Grotto on the menu at Leith restaurant

Published on Wednesday 2 December 2009 08:40

A SPECIAL Christmas grotto designed to be a "Leith alternative" to the city's traditional festive attractions is being set up in a local restaurant.

The Yard has revealed that it will create its very own Christmas market and festive grotto this year, providing residents of Leith with their own celebrations.

The restaurant will carry out a massive overhaul of its courtyard in order to create the attractions, which will be open to members of the public from 9 December.

The Yard's head chef, Tony Delicata, said: "We wanted to replicate some of the festivities that are taking place at Princes Street Gardens, but on a smaller scale. Leith doesn't really have a Christmas market of its own so we thought we would create one here ourselves, so that it can be enjoyed by everyone in the area.

"Although it's going to rival the big market on Princes Street Gardens, our biggest inspiration was actually the Christmas decorations in New York.

"They're iconic and everyone knows what they look like thanks to popular TV programmes and movies, so we wanted to create that sort of wintry feel down in Leith."

As well as the market stalls and a Santa's grotto, the market will host weekend breakfast events, and there will be state-of-the-art artificial snow and decorations set up throughout the courtyard.