Ring in the holiday season with Santa, Christmas teddies and a gingerbread village

It's another five weeks until Santa is arriving down any Kiwi chimneys, but he's already hearing Christmas wish lists at Sylvia Park.

An enchanted forest awaits families with children shopping at Auckland's biggest mall and Kiwi Property national marketing manager Karlee Lightbourne said elves will also be surprising customers with random and special Christmas gifts.

"Our research tells us that what makes Christmas special for our customers is a visit to Santa with the kids," Lightbourne said.

"Getting a Santa photo is a tradition for many families and we see them here year after year as they watch their children grow."

She said the focus this year was on the magic of the Santa experience, and the admission to the enchanted forest is free.

Santa arrives today at 10am and this will trigger the start of Christmas activity across Kiwi Property shopping centres, which also includes LynnMall.

"We are really excited to be able to introduce a new home for Santa here at Sylvia Park this year," Lightbourne added.

At the newly-renamed Cordis Hotel, a European gingerbread village created by executive pastry chef Callum Liddicoat is being put up in the lobby. It is made from stuff that a kid's dreams are made of - a 1.8m x 1.8m confectioner's masterpiece made with over 30kg of gingerbread, 60kg of icing sugar and 40kg of chocolate and covered in "snow" and decorated with Christmas treats and chocolate delights.

"With the cold winter of Europe as inspiration, the team have been busy mixing, rolling, baking and piping the pieces that build this village from the ground up," said Elaine Yeoh, director of marketing communications.

Staff have also donated pre-loved teddy bears and hand-made Christmas ornaments created jointly with children at Ronald McDonald house, and these will go on display as part of the "Cordis Teddy Tree" to go up on December 5.

The tree is fashioned from mainly recycled materials like rattan shoe baskets to form its branches and recycled wood to make the base.

It will be donated on Christmas Eve as a gift to a local children's orphanage.