MARKET traders are adding a continental touch to a town's Christmas celebrations this weekend.
Germany's traditional and popular Christmas markets inspired traders and councillors in Spennymoor, County Durham, to set up a month-long open air shoppers' feast.
The Weihnachtsmarkt is being staged alongside a temporary ice rink and both are open from 10am to 9pm from Saturday until January 6.
Twelve traditional wooden stalls have been built by a dozen young joinery trainees employed by Sedgefield Borough Council and 13 adults on a New Deal programme.
Designs for the stalls came from the borough's twin German town, Rheinhausen, and the costs will be recovered by hiring them to other organisations.
The rink, one of three in the North-East, can be hired by schools, businesses and other organisations.
The council has worked with Spennymoor Town Council and the Town Centre Forum on the project.
Bernd Bangel, a youth development officer in the borough's leisure services department, said: "The idea is to bring people from all over the region into Spennymoor for shopping, skating and special events."
The rink is closed to the public from 3pm to 6pm on Saturday for special opening ceremony displays.
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