Harry Potter snow company brings winter to designer outlet

Snow has hit the leaves of trees and settled on the ground just in time for a Christmas lights switch-on.

Faux snow, that is - after the company which brings winter alive for Hollywood movies has sprinkled some magic over Santa's grotto at the East Midlands Designer Outlet.

The shopping centre is preparing for it's Christmas Lights switch on tonight and enlisted the help of 'faux snow specialists' Snow Business, which has worked on movies such as Harry Potter, Snow White and the James Bond movie Skyfall, to shower 500kg of fake snow over its Winter Woodland.

The company used bio-degradable, recycled paper to create the effect, which has been used on all manner of Christmas TV ads, the Paddington Bear movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Bridget Jones's Diary - and now the scene of Derbyshire's shopping outlet.

The magic happened in the small hours of last night, ready for the outlet's switch-on tomorrow night (Thursday, November 10) at 7pm.